De Beers, the company that spent the last century making diamonds a symbol of permanence, is idling its crown jewel. The miner said it will pause production for two years at Venetia, its flagship mine in South Africa's Limpopo province, in a bid to cut costs as the diamond market slumps. The mine employs about 4,400 people, and the company has warned of significant layoffs as it begins consultations.
Why now
The decision reflects how sharply the diamond business has deteriorated. De Beers' average selling price fell about 19% to roughly $101 a carat in the first quarter of the year, as demand weakened in major markets and lab-grown stones, chemically identical to mined diamonds but far cheaper, took a growing share of jewelry sales. Just before the Venetia announcement, the company cut its official rough-diamond prices and shrank its roster of authorized buyers from about 70 to 45, concentrating sales among its biggest customers.
Venetia, South Africa's most valuable diamond mine, produced 2.23 million carats in 2025. De Beers said pausing it will let the company delay some spending on a costly underground expansion while keeping enough infrastructure in place to restart quickly if prices recover.
Pain for South Africa
For South Africa, the halt lands hard. Diamond mining remains an important source of jobs and export earnings, particularly in rural Limpopo, and the loss of activity at the country's flagship operation ripples through local economies and suppliers. The company has said it will offer support to affected workers and continue some investment in surrounding communities, but the scale of the pause makes it one of the more consequential mining retrenchments the country has faced recently.
A headache for Anglo American
The move also deepens a corporate quandary for Anglo American, which owns the majority of De Beers and has been trying to sell or spin off the diamond business as part of a broader restructuring. A mine suspension and a slumping market make De Beers harder to offload, and analysts have described the difficulty of separating it as a central obstacle to Anglo's plans. Under a turnaround effort begun in 2024, De Beers has already stripped out overhead, sold non-core assets and signaled further cuts, including at its London headquarters.
De Beers' chief executive, Al Cook, framed the step as a response to a difficult and changing industry rather than a temporary blip. The company's message, in effect, was that the diamond downturn is not one it expects to pass quickly.
