Diamond Mines Are Closing and South Africans Have Few Alternatives — WSJ
By Alexandra Wexler
MUSINA, South Africa-For 13 years, Tinah Nemahunguni has been overseeing and operating machinery in the diamond-recovery plant at Venetia, the South African mine of diamond behemoth De Beers.
She built a house in the nearby dusty, bustling town of Musina near the Zimbabwean border, confident that diamonds would provide a brighter future for her two children.
But in July, De Beers said it would suspend production at the mine, which was previously slated to extract gems well into the 2040s, as it reckons with the unraveling of an industry it almost single-handedly built.
The local union says more than 1,200 jobs are at risk.
"There is no bigger industry here," said Nemahunguni, a 37-year-old widow. Other employers in the region are mainly commercial farms and game lodges. Few provide the salaries or benefits that come with working for a multinational corporation.
"It's the only job I've ever had that has sustained my family," said Nemahunguni, whose mining income also supports her brother, sister and grandmother. "We are desperate."
The industry is desperate, too.
Over the past century, miners like De Beers positioned diamonds as synonymous with love and devotion. But now, stones can be made in labs that mimic the Earth's extreme pressure and temperatures-for a fraction of the price. As the man-made gems became mainstream, they increasingly threatened diamonds' status as the ultimate luxury good, sending prices for both natural and synthetic stones tumbling.
That has prompted the industry to suspend or close around 10 large diamond mines around the world over the past two years, resulting in a drop in output of about 25% from five years ago, according to Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond analyst in New York. Yet prices continue to slide.
The average one-carat natural diamond fetches $3,415, about 47% less than it did a decade ago, according to Zimnisky. The price of a one-carat lab-grown stone has plummeted 89% to $595 over the same period.
After a short-lived foray into selling lab-grown diamonds for jewelry, De Beers is now staking its future on convincing new generations of consumers that love isn't forever unless it is sealed with a-natural-stone. Last year, De Beers launched a campaign for natural diamonds, backed by its largest marketing budget in a decade.
The company says the campaign has boosted demand, with natural diamond sales at U.S. independent jewelry retailers increasing 9% in the first quarter of 2026.
But it is still early days, and De Beers, founded in 1888 by a group that included colonial pioneer Cecil John Rhodes, is pausing production at Venetia, in its ancestral home of South Africa, for two years to cut down on costs.
In a country where the unemployment rate is over 40%, the impact will likely be acute.
"There will be a lot of people in the streets," said Tshilidzi Sikhwivhilu, local chairman of the National Union of Mineworkers, the biggest union at Venetia. Even if they try to start a business to support themselves, they will struggle to find customers with money to spend, he said.
De Beers has vowed to support affected employees and help "sustain the regional socio-economic resilience we've worked to cocreate," including by backing agricultural projects, a company spokesperson said.
Like many South Africans, most workers in the area live hand-to-mouth, with no savings to fall back on. Other local jobs are less lucrative, if they can be found at all.
Rasafa Mulaudzi, 37, has worked at the Venetia plant since 2015 and is building his first house. His monthly pay of around $2,150 supports his child, his late brother's two children and his parents, as well as three siblings who can't find work.
"How can I survive this?" Mulaudzi said.
The union has accused De Beers management of attempting to portray the mine closure "as a sudden and unavoidable crisis," when it has been aware for some time of the challenges facing the industry.
Just a few years ago, De Beers, which is majority-owned by Anglo American, invested some $2.3 billion to convert the open-pit mine to an underground operation.
In February, Anglo slashed in half the value of its diamond business. The $2.3 billion write-down was De Beers' third in three years. The unit booked a roughly $500 million adjusted loss for 2025. Anglo has been trying to sell its 85% stake in De Beers for over two years, but has yet to find a buyer.
Whether new ownership can turn the De Beers ship around might be a moot point for Venetia workers, many of whom have never even seen a diamond, let alone dream of owning one, natural or lab-grown.
Nemahunguni, the mother of two, says it adds insult to injury that on the De Beers internal jobs portal, the company is actively recruiting for jobs at Element Six, a U.K.-based subsidiary that produces lab-grown diamonds, mostly for industrial applications.
"They are saying they don't have money, but they're hiring," she said.
Write to Alexandra Wexler at [email protected]