Editor’s Note
This article details De Beers Group’s strategic pivot, ending its six-year venture into consumer lab-grown diamonds to focus on producing industrial diamonds for technology. The move underscores shifting priorities within the diamond industry.
On May 31, during the JCK Las Vegas jewelry trade show, South African diamond giant De Beers Group revealed that, as part of a strategic restructuring plan, it will suspend the production of lab-grown diamonds at its Lightbox factory in Gresham, Oregon. The facility will instead pivot to producing industrial diamonds for technology applications. This move marks the end of De Beers’ six-year experiment with Lightbox, which began in 2018, producing its own lab-grown diamonds for jewelry.
De Beers CEO Al Cook confirmed this decision at a JCK Las Vegas breakfast meeting. Alongside the production transformation at the Gresham Lightbox factory, De Beers also announced the consolidation of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond production facilities from its wholly-owned subsidiary Element Six. Production will be consolidated from three factories into a single facility in Oregon.
Moving forward, all lab-grown diamonds produced by Element Six will be dedicated to technological purposes. The company stated its belief in the significant potential for lab-grown diamonds in high-tech sectors, signaling a clear strategic shift away from the consumer jewelry market for its synthetic diamond output.
