It must recently renewed its focus on natural diamonds after experiencing with those cultivated in the laboratory, but that will probably not be enough to revive diamond mining in northern Ontario, according to some who work in the sector.
In a press release last week, the mining giant pointed out a strong decrease in laboratory diamond prices, and said the trend supported the “central belief of the company in rare diamond jewelry, high value and natural.”
Musters began its diamond business cultivated in the laboratory while closed its only diamond project in Ontario: the Victor mine near Attawapiskat First Nation at the northern end of the province.
Victor was a productive and profitable mine for Debers, which was able to recover 8.3 million diamond carats between 2006 and 2019.
But the diamond prices have generally decreased since that time due to the changing preferences of the consumer and the explosion of the diamond market cultivated in the laboratory.
The Sudbury jeweler, Gerry Aubin, says that today only one in 100 clients enters natural diamonds.
“Last year I sold a natural stone,” he said. “Everyone is buying cultivated laboratory, as if not even an argument that people are having.”
Aubin says that laboratory cultivated prices are much cheaper, and people cannot differentiate them from natural ones.
Marketing to relive interest in natural diamonds
Justin Daley, CEO of Junior Exploration Company VR Resources, has noticed a similar trend.
“I am 35 years old, many of my friends are going to marry, not many of them buy diamonds,” he said.
“It’s hard to justify buying a very expensive stone when you can buy an emerald.”
VR Resources made an important discovery of “accident” diamonds in the James Bay region in 2023 while exploring for other minerals.
Daley says the deposit is promising, but is not depositing in it.
“There has been very little interest in general in the project,” he said.
“Existing diamond mines are not earning money, and when existing mines do not earn money, it tends not to look for other new ones.”
In the press release last week, he should say that his plan is to invest in “the revitalized desire for natural diamonds through category marketing”, but Daley is not convinced that he reduces it.
“A lot of really intelligent marketing of Deeers was needed to create this type of aura of mysticism and charm, ‘the diamonds are forever’, but that is a bit worn, I think,” he said.
But Mike Mctavish, owner of Forage Fusion Drilling, is a more optimistic tone.
“I don’t think we lose that part of the market,” he said. “Yes, now we can produce many things in laboratories. But I still think that real diamonds are the best.”
However, he says that diamond drilling contracts have been few and distant, and do not pay as much as they used to do it.
It is something that feels a bit nostalgic about the emergence of laboratory diamonds.
“It’s sad not to trust the good old search engine that Marta in some rocks,” he said. “That is why we do exploration drilling, we can go to find the unknown.”
