De Beers shuts down LightBox

[Karl_K]

De Beers shuts down LightBox to concentrate on industrial, tech, and scientific markets.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Who's Ronnie and why are you getting his mail?
They could have done a bang-up job with LGDs but they chose not to. I ordered one for a friend and it was pretty sad.

 

[Karl_K]

lol @Ibrakeforpossums it was sent to me to post by a trusted person so I have no idea.

My take on it is that the power costs rose probably because of data centers and they were not competitive at those rates.
They also started out as being nice quality but went downhill and as you noted got pretty bad while everyone else was getting better.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Who's Ronnie and why are you getting his mail?
They could have done a bang-up job with LGDs but they chose not to. I ordered one for a friend and it was pretty sad.

This is a letter to a De Beers client. No idea who.
As Karl mentioned even with all the hydro in Oregon there is still a lot of energy used and sadly the subsidized Indian +60% fossil fuels make a difference.
But more than that the ingenuity of the Indian diamond industry is the same as why 90% of the worlds diamonds are polished in Surat India.
Not in Antwerp, NYC or Tel Aviv.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/de-beers-shut-down-its-lab-grown-diamond-jewellery-brand-lightbox-2025-05-08/#:~:text=De%20Beers%20began%20selling%20synthetic,which%20fetch%20much%20higher%20prices

 

[DejaWiz]

My opinion: no loss to the world.
Lightbox was running on the mindset of "slop in, slop out" from what I gathered.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

 

[RMOO]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

I had to look up this term's meaning. I had never heard it before, but it is now in my reserve cache. A much more dignified why of saying karmas a bitch.