When Aret Oymakas started selling diamonds years ago, engagement ring shoppers came in looking for one thing for their brides-to-be: a real, mined diamond.
"It was just a diamond," said Oymakas, owner of Livia Diamonds in Toronto. "And you got what you were able to get … in terms of design and budget."
These days, not so much.
Lab-grown diamonds have become massively popular in recent years, giving the traditional, mined version a run for its money.
Oymakas says natural diamonds made up 100 per cent of his business until 2018 when lab-grown diamonds came on the market in a big way. Now, natural diamonds account for only three to four per cent of his business.
According to experts like Oymakas, ethics, cost and the rising price of every other part of life for new couples has chipped away at the popularity of real diamonds. And that's having a big impact on the mining business — including in Canada's North.
WATCH | Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges: Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges Hundreds of people are being laid off at a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories as production halts, signaling a shifting industry. Lab-grown diamonds are surging in popularity, offering a similar sparkle for a fraction of the price.
Just last week, Burgundy Diamond Mines announced it would be laying off hundreds of employees and temporarily suspending operations at one of its open-pit mining sites, Point Lake, in the Northwest Territories.
A communications manager for the company, Ariella Calin, said the open-pit mine was "proving to be sub-economic," given the recent drop in the value of diamonds . According to data from Tenoris, which tracks diamond retail prices, natural diamonds in stores now cost 26 per cent less than they did just two years ago.
Canada exported $2.21 billion worth of diamonds in 2019, making it the third biggest diamond producer in the world at the time. And with three diamond mines in the Northwest Territories alone, the diamond industry employs thousands of people directly in that territory and many more indirectly according to experts, meaning declines in the market will have an outsized impact in the North.
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