Pandora to no longer sell natural diamonds

The world's biggest jeweler, Pandora, says it will no longer sell mined diamonds and will switch to exclusively laboratory-made diamonds, Report informs referring to the BBC.

Concerns about the environment and working practices in the mining industry have led to growing demand for alternatives to mined diamonds.

Pandora's chief executive, Alexander Lacik, told the BBC the change was part of a broader sustainability drive.

He said the firm was pursuing it because "it's the right thing to do".

They are also cheaper: "We can essentially create the same outcome as nature has created, but at a very, very different price." Lacik explains they can be made for as little as "a third of what it is for something that we've dug up from the ground."

In 2020, worldwide lab-grown diamond production grew to between 6 and 7 million carats. Meanwhile the production of mined diamonds fell to 111 million carats last year, having peaked at 152 million in 2017.

In the middle of last year, Pandora was the first of the world's largest jewelry manufacturers to announce that it intends to use only recycled silver and gold from 2025, abandoning mined metals. The company said this would allow it to cut emissions by almost 65-99 percent.