WATCH | Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges: Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges Hundreds of people are being laid off at a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories as production halts, signaling a shifting industry. "What you get with [a natural diamond] is that you're holding an amazing fragment of the deepest part of the earth. Forced labour and child labour are problems in the diamond mining industry in Africa in particular, and the difficult physical work often yields little pay. The blockbuster 2006 movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio exposed many consumers to the realities of the diamond mining industry. 's diamond mines lost millions of dollars in 2024: The Trailbreaker The N.W.T.’s diamond mines lost millions of dollars in 2024.