Mmegi

Nature vs nurture: The battle for the soul of the diamond

Ever shining: Lucara's Karowe Mine regularly unveils major finds PIC: LUCARACORP.COM
Ever shining: Lucara's Karowe Mine regularly unveils major finds PIC: LUCARACORP.COM

One early winter evening in Botswana, a young miner listened as his manager explained that production at the nearby Jwaneng pit would be scaled back for the first time in decades. Simultaneously, on the other side of the globe, a couple in Denver was debating whether to choose an engagement ring set with a natural stone or a synthetic one.

These seemingly unrelated conversations capture the tension defining the diamond industry today, as an ancestral trade built on rarity and romance faces off against an avalanche of easily affordable, laboratory‑grown diamonds (LGDs). The stakes are high, especially in the countries that are reliant on the revenues provided by their natural diamond resources.

A shock to the system

Editor's Comment
Human rights are sacred

It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...

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