The effect of the US and EU sanctions on Russian goods, among them Russian diamonds manufactured by Alrosa, is already felt all over the world. According to IDEX Online, Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy, Lefoko Moagi, told a mining conference “it would be hard to source enough natural diamonds to replace Alrosa’s missing output.”
According to the piece, Moagi said: “We see the 30% gap that will be left by the ban being plugged by something else that is not natural. And for us that will be a challenge.” Supplies of smaller diamonds have been particularly affected, and this has made Indian manufacturers turn to lab-grown diamonds.
Jacob Thamage, head of Botswana’s Diamond Hub, told Reuters that “higher prices were pushing consumers from mined towards lab grown diamonds.”
