Diamonds: lab-grown vs mined
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Diamonds in places like Sierra Leone have long had a tarnished association with war and corruption – blood diamonds, as they’re known. There’s now also the economic threat of synthetic, lab-grown diamonds. Can traditional mining compete? And are natural diamonds really so much worse for us, for the planet, than their new rivals, grown in a lab?
To get in touch with the team, send us an email to businessdaily@bbc.co.uk
Producer/presenter: Ed Butler Sound engineer: Toby James
Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.
Each episode is a 17-minute, daily deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.
Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, the economic impact of the war in the Middle East, and why bond markets are so powerful.
We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include Google's Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the CEO of Canva, Melanie Perkins.
(Photo: A diamond specialist inspects an uncut rock. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to the second of our programs on Business Daily from the BBC World Service, looking at the troubled state of the diamond industry. |
| 0:20.4 | I'm in Sierra Leone, where artisanal diamond mining has become a way of life. |
| 0:26.8 | Well, I have not made a lot of money yet. |
| 0:30.4 | Sometimes for the whole of the year, you can't get anything. |
| 0:35.2 | For the whole of the year, you can't get anything. |
| 0:40.0 | It is by the grace of God that you find a diamond. As we heard in yesterday's program, there is a history of war here |
| 0:46.8 | and also deep-rooted corruption. Can new lab-grown diamonds made in other countries take the place of traditionally mined gems. |
| 0:57.0 | People are going to, all over the world, are going to get more conscious about extracting too much from the earth. |
| 1:04.0 | And the dependence of the industry on the naturally mine diamonds is going to be less. |
| 1:10.0 | Is there trouble in diamond land, the future of the industry, |
| 1:15.3 | on Business Daily from the BBC? |
| 1:21.2 | We're now walking into the flea market area of Goodyoo City. |
| 1:31.0 | This is where they sell everything from old shoes to cleaning products to clothing, soap and soft dress. |
| 1:41.3 | There's still plenty of people around, But they say that trade is down here |
| 1:45.8 | Substantially in the last few months |
| 1:48.4 | It is not really easy, but you try |
| 1:59.3 | You have to push You have to you try. You have to push. |
| 2:01.9 | You have to find mince. |
| 2:05.1 | Is it worse than it used to be here? |
| 2:08.0 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 2:09.6 | Really, it is not easy, really. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.