Best of: How the diamond industry lost its sparkle

This week, we are revisiting a favorite episode. The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They are chemically and physically identical to natural stones but they are a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how they are made. While the FT’s natural resources editor, Leslie Hook, explores what the sale of De Beers, the natural diamond producer, could mean for the future of the sector. This episode originally aired on September 10 2025. Clip from Arnold Worldwide The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For further reading (updated): How the diamond industry lost its sparkle The sparkle is fading in Africa’s diamond heartland De Beers likely to be sold to consortium, Anglo chief says - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow Leslie Hook on X ( @lesliehook ) and Eleanor Olcott on X ( @EleanorOlcott ). Michela Tindera is on X ( @mtindera07 ) and Bluesky ( @mtindera.ft.com ), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Best of: How the diamond industry lost its sparkle online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Best of: How the diamond industry lost its sparkle is an episode from Behind The Money with the Financial Times by Topher Forhecz.

This episode is 23:32 long.

This episode was published on Mar 18, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Behind The Money with the Financial Times when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.