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
Don't let FMD outbreak drag on

Acting Agriculture Minister, Edwin Dikoloti, is right in saying opening an export-ready facility whilst Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is still spreading would risk getting the whole country blacklisted before a single carcass leaves the door.A ban like that would break the already stressed nation. So, the postponement, painful as it is, is the right thing to do. The local economy is being squeezed from both ends. FMD has already slammed the door...

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