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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Monday was a positive 83-70-157 as the TSX Venture Exchange added five points to 802. Slow but relentless inflation -- especially with mining goods and services -- and a flat market following a three-year slump that peeled 40 per cent from rough diamond prices have both exacted a damaging toll on the diamond sector. Yes, brides-to-be still want an engagement ring that will wow their friends, and yes, most male suitors of nubile females are resigned to diamonds being one of the more necessary luxuries in life. And so, in the latest chapter of the what-could-they-be-thinking book, one can only shake their head at the latest move by De Beers.

De Beers -- the "a diamond is forever" company that made billions mining diamonds since the late 1800s -- inexplicably crossed over to the dark side in 2018, when it launched Lightbox to make and market synthetic diamonds. That eye-popper of a strategy became a retina scratcher when Lightbox quickly moved its wares into the bridal market -- long the staple of the natural diamond sector. De Beers seemed to see the error in its ways after synthetic prices collapsed, threatening to carry off the bridal sector along with it.

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