Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Crushing Sierra Leone’s Mining Communities
BBC Business reported Tuesday that the surging popularity of lab-grown diamonds has sent natural diamond prices tumbling, triggering job losses and deepening hardship across Sierra Leone’s diamond-rich Kono region.
A Mine Closes, Workers Are Left Behind
Polished natural diamond prices have fallen roughly 40% over the past four years. The primary cause is factory-produced diamonds, made from crystallised carbon under either high-pressure high-temperature or chemical vapour deposition processes. Manufactured mainly in India and China, these lab-grown diamonds are chemically indistinguishable from mined stones. They retail for up to 70% less.
The consequences in Kono have been severe. Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone’s largest diamond mine, shut last year with the loss of around 1,000 jobs. A protracted labour dispute over wages was the stated reason, but insiders privately acknowledged that weak global prices made the closure easier to justify. Since the shutdown, informal small-scale mining has expanded across the region as displaced workers seek alternative income.
Kono’s governor Augustine Shekho told BBC Business the price slump has compressed miner earnings, chilled investment, and sapped local economic activity across the board.
A Region With a Painful History
Diamond mining has anchored Kono’s economy since the 1930s. The region’s wealth made it a flashpoint during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, which ran for eleven years and claimed more than 50,000 lives. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed or displaced before the conflict ended. Governor Shekho described witnessing atrocities firsthand, including the killing of his own mother during the fighting.
A United Nations-backed certification framework, the Kimberley Process, launched in 2003 to block so-called conflict diamonds from legal markets. But reputational damage to the industry persisted. Local primary school teacher Abubakar Amara captured the frustration felt by many, telling the BBC that decades of diamond wealth had delivered little tangible benefit to Kono or Sierra Leone at large.
De Beers Tries a Different Approach
British mining multinational De Beers is attempting to reframe the conversation around natural diamonds. Its Gemfair programme offers artisanal miners in Sierra Leone equipment, training, and fairer pricing channels for their finds. The scheme is partly designed to let retailers trace and narrate the origin of each stone they sell.
De Beers representative David Johnson told BBC Business that consumer interest in provenance is growing. The company is betting that transparent supply chains can differentiate mined diamonds from their factory-made rivals. Whether that premium story gains enough traction to stabilise prices, and protect livelihoods in communities like Kono, remains deeply uncertain.
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