Can the Luanda Accord bring a sparkle back to the fading diamond industry?

Stephen Grootes speaks to David Van Wyk, mining analyst about the progress of the Luanda Accord, a landmark agreement by major diamond-producing countries and industry bodies to jointly fund global marketing for natural diamonds.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

In June 2025, diamond-producing countries, companies and industry bodies met in Luanda and signed an agreement called the Luanda Accord.

The idea was that every diamond-producing country would contribute 1% of the value of its diamond exports to a shared fund. 

Those countries include Angola, Sierra Leone, Namibia as well as diamond companies such as De Beers.

That money would go to the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) and be used to promote natural diamonds around the world.

The diamond industry has lost the sparkle it once had, with laboratory-grown diamonds taking a large chunk out of the market share.

As a result, diamond prices have fallen nearly 36% over the past three years.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, mining analyst David Van Wyk says diamonds are not as rare, and therefore not as valuable as they once were.

"You can give everyone on the planet a purse-full of diamonds actually. So they're not as rare as people claim they are. They're abundant. As soon as something's abundant in the market, they're valueless."

- David van Wyk, mining analyst

"The diamond pipeline made much more money in Belgium, Israel, Dubai, India and Britain. At one point, Britain was the biggest exporter of rough diamonds in the world but it didn't have a single diamond mine. That was actually where the con happened."

- David van Wyk, mining analyst

"We in southern Africa actually got very little value for the diamonds that we're producing. Recently a major diamond was discovered west of Pretoria. The value of that diamond will not be realised in South Africa. It will be realised overseas."

- David van Wyk, mining analyst

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.