De Beers says 'no thanks' to lab-grown diamonds

Some in the jewelry sector may see lab-grown diamonds as a way to achieve a more ethical and sustainable future, but one of the biggest names in diamonds, De Beers, is ending a six-year experiment in the area.

It will no longer create “synthetic” diamonds for its Lightbox brand, and CEO Al Cook said at an event in Las Vegas that the company sees the future of lab-grown diamonds in “technology rather than jewelry.”

De Beers is an Afro-British company controlled by British mining giant Anglo-American, which plans to separate it from its main operations. De Beers' Element Six business will now shift its Portland, Oregon, facility to a plant that produces diamonds for industrial applications, which is what Element Six was originally created for.

The company launched its lab-grown diamonds under the Lightbox jewelry brand in 2018, but prices for such diamonds fell sharply during the period.

However, the Lightbox brand will remain and the CEO will tell several news services that it has enough inventory to maintain sales for the “foreseeable future.” A decision on his long-term future will be made later.

He also said that a central pillar of Lightbox has been its carbon-neutral and American-made stance and that the company wants to maintain both aspects of the brand.

As for De Beers in general, it is clearly preparing to renew its focus on promoting natural diamonds and differentiating them from the lab-grown variety.