More than 4,000 workers at South Africa's largest diamond mine are facing an uncertain future after De Beers announced it would suspend production for two years, blaming a dramatic slump in global demand and the rising popularity of far cheaper lab-grown gems.
The Venetia mine, in the far north of the country, accounts for over 40% of South Africa's diamond output and employs more than 4,000 people. De Beers said it needed to cut costs and streamline operations given the depressed state of the world diamond market.
“De Beers suspends production at South Africa's biggest diamond mine for two years, affecting 4,000 jobs.”
The decision comes as the industry reels from a decline in consumer appetite, particularly in China, and intensifying competition from synthetic diamonds that cost a fraction of natural stones. The International Diamond Consultants' rough diamond price index has almost halved since 2022.
De Beers is majority-owned by Anglo American, which is reportedly trying to offload the diamond giant and refocus on the booming copper market, driven by demand from the artificial intelligence industry.
During the two-year shutdown, De Beers has pledged to upgrade infrastructure at Venetia to make it more efficient and increase capacity, ready to restart production when market conditions improve.
Unions have previously warned against job losses in South Africa's mining sector, which employs nearly half a million people and accounts for more than 4% of the country's GDP.
The closure marks a stark reversal for a company that famously coined the advertising slogan "A Diamond is Forever" in 1947, cementing the diamond ring as an essential part of marriage and inspiring a James Bond novel and the Shirley Bassey song.
But times have changed. Lab-grown diamonds have surged in popularity as consumers voice ethical concerns about miners' pay, working conditions and environmental damage. De Beers itself has entered that market, selling its own lab-grown versions at a fraction of the price of natural diamonds.
De Beers is not the first large producer to scale back, but its long history dating back to 1871 gives the move particular symbolic weight. The company was founded by Cecil Rhodes, the English colonist whose forces dispossessed indigenous Africans and denied them basic rights. Rhodes became a millionaire and later told Cape Town's Parliament that "the natives are children... they are just emerging from barbarism." His legacy in southern Africa remains deeply contested.
The Venetia mine's two-year pause raises questions about the future of South Africa's diamond industry and the thousands of livelihoods that depend on it.