How the diamond industry lost its sparkle

钻石业如何失去光泽

Behind the Money

2025-09-10

23 分钟
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The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They’re chemically and physically identical to natural stones, and they're just a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how they’re made. While the FT’s natural resources editor, Leslie Hook, explores what the sale of leading natural diamond producer, De Beers, could mean for the future of the sector.   Clip from Arnold Worldwide  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  For further reading: How the diamond industry lost its sparkle  The sparkle is fading in Africa’s diamond heartland Taylor Swift hands diamonds a moment to shine - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Follow Leslie Hook on X (@lesliehook) and Eleanor Olcott on X (@EleanorOlcott). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Earlier this summer,

  • my colleague Eleanor Olcott traveled to a city in the central Chinese province of Henan.

  • We're in one of the jewelry markets in Jeonju.

  • This is a building dedicated to jewelry sales.

  • This market's name in English translates to more gold, more silver.

  • But as Eleanor walks around this eight-story building, diamonds are the main thing catching her eye.

  • Stall after stall glitters with them.

  • You can see here there's lots of women trying on the shiny diamond earrings,

  • which to the naked eye they look exactly the same as their natural counterpart.

  • These earrings she's talking about here aren't made with natural diamonds,

  • you know, the kind dug out from the earth.

  • These are created in a lab, and recently their popularity has exploded.

  • We spoke into a couple of the shopkeepers who have been here for two to three years and say that people are becoming more and more accustomed to the concept of live burn diamonds.