NDC — The Natural Diamond Council
NDC — The Natural Diamond Council
The marketing trade body representing the world's leading natural-diamond mining companies
NDC is the abbreviation for the Natural Diamond Council, the marketing and promotional trade body representing the world's leading natural-diamond mining companies. The NDC was launched in 2020 as the rebranded successor to the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), which had operated under that name from 2015 to 2020. The council exists to promote natural-mined diamonds to consumers, retailers, and the broader trade through generic-category marketing, content production, retailer partnerships, and influencer programmes. The NDC's principal funders and members are the major natural-diamond mining companies; its budget is provided by these member companies as a shared marketing investment.
Members
The NDC's principal members include De Beers Group (the dominant natural-diamond producer and a founding member), ALROSA (whose participation has been complicated since 2022 by sanctions related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine), Rio Tinto (whose Argyle mine closed in 2020 but whose participation continues through other holdings), Petra Diamonds, Lucara Diamond, Dominion Diamond Mines, and Murowa Diamonds. The combination represents the great majority of global natural-diamond rough production by value, although the precise composition of the membership has shifted as the diamond mining industry has consolidated and as individual companies' market positions have changed.
Mission and activities
The NDC's stated mission is to advance the integrity of the diamond industry and to inspire the next generation of diamond consumers. In practice, the council's activities focus on consumer-facing marketing campaigns, retailer education and partnership programmes, trade-press and industry-event participation, and the production of editorial content emphasising the rarity, provenance, and cultural significance of natural diamonds. The Only Natural Diamonds platform — including the website naturaldiamonds.com, social channels, and influencer partnerships — is the principal consumer-facing initiative. The council does not certify diamonds, does not enforce trade standards, and does not arbitrate disclosure or treatment claims; those functions fall to other bodies.
Position in the trade
The NDC operates alongside several other industry bodies that together form the natural-diamond institutional infrastructure. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme governs the regulatory side of conflict-free diamond trade. The World Diamond Council (WDC) represents the broader trade industry on policy and disclosure matters. The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) provides voluntary standards for responsible-sourcing certification. The major laboratories — GIA, IGI, HRD, AGS — provide grading and treatment-detection services. The Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) handles US trade-level enforcement of disclosure rules. The NDC's role is specifically marketing and category promotion; the other bodies handle the regulatory, certification, and grading functions.
The LGD context
The NDC's formation as a successor to the DPA in 2020 reflected the rapid growth of the laboratory-grown diamond (LGD) market and the natural-diamond industry's strategic decision to defend the natural category by name. The NDC's messaging positions natural diamonds as fundamentally different from LGD product on grounds of geological rarity, provenance, and emotional resonance, while accepting that the two products are physically and chemically similar. The position has shaped marketing across the natural-diamond industry through the early 2020s and continues to evolve as the LGD market matures and prices diverge further from natural pricing.
Critique and reception
The NDC's positioning has been the subject of trade-press and industry critique on several grounds. The first concerns the inherent partisan nature of industry-funded marketing: the NDC's claims, like those of any trade body, must be read with awareness of who is funding them. The second concerns the De Beers complication: the NDC's largest member also operates Lightbox, a significant LGD producer, creating apparent contradictions in the broader industry positioning. The third concerns the environmental and social claims, particularly the comparison between natural-diamond mining and LGD production, where both sides have made claims that the FTC and other regulators have at times required to be substantiated.
Notwithstanding these critiques, the NDC has established itself as the recognised voice of the natural-diamond category in consumer and trade marketing, and its messaging is now embedded in the marketing materials of retailers, the editorial coverage of trade publications, and the broader cultural conversation around diamond purchase and value.