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Diamonds aren’t forever at Petra’s Finsch and Cullinan minesTrouble is brewing at Petra Diamonds’ South African operations. Recently, the diamond mining group placed its Finsch Diamond Mine under business rescue and shortly after began a retrenchment process at its Cullinan Mine, putting almost 1,800 jobs at risk.  Octahedral, approx. 1.8 carat (6 mm), diamond crystal in kimberlite matrix from Finsch Diamond Mine, South Africa. Image credit: Marcin Mlynczak, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Following the business rescue news, SABC News reports that mineworkers “downed tools” at the mine near Lime Acres, 160 km northwest of Kimberley. NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) claims that before the company's business rescue decision, workers were promised their June salaries would be paid. “Employees must be paid their money next week on the 25th because one cannot just come on the 11th hour and say you are no longer going to pay employees,” said the NUM branch secretary at the mine, King Serebolo. Serebolo also has safety concerns for NUM members at the mine. “There is a U-turn from the management of this company. They no longer want to ensure that the employees are working in a safe place,” said Serebolo. “That is why, for safety reasons, we have decided to say that underground is not safe.” Weak performanceBusinessTech says that Petra decided to cut the mine loose because of ongoing underperformance amid a prolonged downturn in the global diamond market. Its chief executive, Vivek Gadodia, reportedly said that the diamond industry was facing an “unprecedentedly weak diamond market due to global macro factors as well as the recent Middle East tensions”. Additionally, CNBC Africa reported in May that Petra claimed Finsch — which accounts for 34% of its revenue in fiscal 2025 and produces mostly two-carat-and-below stones — had been pressured by a structural decline in prices for smaller diamonds. Gadodia furthermore indicated that the company does not expect a material near-term recovery in smaller diamond values. NUM is now urging urgent government intervention, calling for a combined effort from the ministers of mineral and petroleum resources, energy, trade and finance to save the workers’ livelihoods and the industry at large. The country's diamond industry is currently in peril. Earlier this year, the historic 158-year-old Ekapa Diamond Mine in Kimberley was placed under liquidation following a tragic underground mud rush in February 2026 that claimed the lives of five miners. |