Exclusive
Diamond market crash is Africa’s opportunity, not its crisis – M'zée Fula Ngenge
Global natural diamond supply is forecast to fall below 95 million carats this year, the lowest since 1987. For Dr. M'zée Fula Ngenge, chairperson of the African Diamond Council (ADC), this is not a death knell but a clarion call. In an exclusive...
Yesterday
Tracr passes 5 million rough diamonds milestone as De Beers expands provenance push
De Beers Group's blockchain-enabled traceability platform Tracr reached a significant milestone in 2025, with more than 5 million rough diamonds individually scanned and registered, up from 2.8 million cumulative registrations reported in 2024. The...
28 september 2026
South African diamonds head to Hong Kong: SDT partners with BRINKS for JGW 2026
South Africa’s State Diamond Trader (SDT) has confirmed the country's participation in Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong (JGW) 2026 through a partnership with BRINKS. SDT marketing and communication manager Tsholofelo Gopolang Tselapedi...
14 september 2026
David Benderly: PermaScribe seeks to put trust mark on diamond table, not just girdle
In this interview with Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa, PhotoScribe Technologies president and chief executive David Benderly explains how PermaScribe differs technically from conventional laser inscription, its potential to strengthen security, and...
31 august 2026
The great reset: Paul Zimnisky on supply catharsis, De Beers' bargain and the case for natural diamonds
The natural diamond industry is in the throes of its most profound reset in a generation. Supply is plunging to its lowest level since 1987 and De Beers—once valued at over $9 billion—is reportedly being sold for as little as $1 billion.
Lab-grown...
10 august 2026
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 4. Conclusion and some special questions
18 june 2023
A natural polished diamond image defined by the three above coordinates should become the basis of the narratives based on a historical content created within the framework of the model under consideration. Working with an image in such a four-dimensional space (“Cost”, “Karma”, “Ecology” + time) is very convenient because it allows to adapt the model to consumer audiences that differ in language, gender, country, age, as well as in social, cultural, and other features, by varying the weight of coordinates and time ranges. Accordingly, the image of lab-grown diamonds (LGD) is created as an antithesis in the same coordinates.
Lucara’s Karowe underground project on track
05 june 2023
In 2014 I spoke with the then Lucara Diamond chief operating officer, Paul Day on the sidelines of the Botswana Resource Sector Conference. He said at the time that enhanced contained value per tonne at Karowe mine in Botswana provided an opportunity for an underground operation at the mine beyond 2026.
Norilsk Nickel: Priority to sustainable development
01 june 2023
At the presentation on May 23 in Moscow, the management of Norilsk Nickel presented the main results in the field of sustainable development for 2022, which were discussed by representatives of the company's regions of presence, the scientific and expert community, as well as by Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished.
“Lies, Damn Lies… and Statistics”
29 may 2023
Last year, the ‘Knot’, the highly rated American wedding magazine asked 12,000 newly wed couples whether they chose a natural or a lab-grown diamond for their engagement ring? This year they published the result… 36% chose the latter. In context, that’s by weight, not value, and engagement rings make up only 25% of the diamond jewellery market, but even so…, that’s a worryingly big number. In fact, the natural diamond industry is under threat as never before. The Natural Diamond Council does a fantastic job of promoting the “Diamond Dream” but it’s massively underfunded. Russia is (for obvious reasons) persona non grata, and the Kimberley Process is unsuited and unable to bring in the necessary changes. So yet again the industry falls back on the partnership which has given stability to the industry for the last half century – De Beers and the Government of Botswana… except you may not have noticed; their relationship may be about to go up in smoke.
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 3. Ecology.
22 may 2023
In 1978, 40 km east of a small town of Aikhal (its ALROSA’s Aikhal Mining and Processing Plant is the largest local employer) in Yakutia, an industrial nuclear explosion “Kraton-3” (force of explosion is 22 kt) was carried out for the purpose of seismic sounding. The explosion was accidental with the release of radionuclides to the surface. In 1992, plutonium isotopes exceeding the background concentrations by 55,000 (fifty-five thousand) times were detected in the samples taken in the downwind fallout areas. In 2001, radionuclides from fragments and induced radionuclides were recorded in soil samples in these downwind fallout areas, including cobalt-60, strontium-90, antimony-125, and cesium-137. The concentration of strontium-90 in the soil in the explosion area was 1,000 times higher than background values, and the concentration of cesium-137 was 1,500 times higher. The content of cesium-137 in the young larches grown in the areas where the trees died in the explosion area is more than 80 times higher than the background values. In 1974, in Yakutia, 2.5 km north-east of the small town of Udachny (its ALROSA’s Udachninsky Mining and Processing Plant is the largest local employer), an industrial nuclear explosion “Kristall” (force of explosion is 1.7 kt) was carried out to create a tailing dump. A total of 8 such explosions were planned, but as the “Kristall” explosion turned out to be an accidental one and its explosion products released into the atmosphere and formed a radioactive cloud, the barbarous experiment was not continued. 18 years (!) later, the explosion area was “decontaminated” in 1992 - just covered with waste rock from the Udachny quarry. Nevertheless, in 2001, the results of the analysis of reindeer moss samples taken several hundred metres away from the explosion epicentre showed that the concentrations of strontium-90 and cesium-137 were by an order of magnitude higher than the background values. In both cases of accidental industrial nuclear explosions in Yakutia, nothing was reported to the local communities about them until the disintegration of the USSR. Apart from the consequences of accidental nuclear explosions and the still unclear consequences of “non-accidental” nuclear explosions (totally, there were 22 of them in the diamond provinces), the diamond mining industry has done and continues to do irreparable environmental damage in all regions of the planet where diamond deposits are being operated.
Branded and non-branded jewellery: what's next on the agenda
15 may 2023
The world of jewellery is diverse and colorful, and its history spans thousands of years. Individual pieces created by local individual jewelers or by multi-billion dollar international brands can equally capture our attention and have a symbolic meaning for the wearer. In this world, a new trend has emerged: branded jewellery from multinational conglomerates is poised for growth in international market despite the fact that about 80% of it is dominated by non-branded pieces. But to achieve the projected growth, branded jewellery has to face quite a few challenges – from increased competition with independent jewelers to varied regional preferences – amidst worsening economic conditions. Can branded jewellery win over a larger customer base and at what cost? What strategies will local jewelers employ to protect their market share? And what is "branded" jewellery, anyway? Let's find out.
Is it possible to rescue the Russian market of coloured gemstones from oblivion?
08 may 2023
When Federal Law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” No. 41-FZ was adopted in 1998, it was a progressive decision introducing the private property for precious metals and precious stones. Probably, it was not yet clear at that time which of the PMPS sectors would flourish and which one would decline. All sectors were expected to flourish. Since then, a quarter of a century has passed and we see now that, in principle, the law works effectively, the PMPS sector in Russia is developing. But there is one segment in the PMPS sector in our country, which is stagnating and even disappearing. This is the mining and processing of coloured gemstones/precious stones. Surprisingly, having introduced 25 amendments to the abovementioned law over 25 years, practically nothing has been done to stop the degradation of the mining and processing of coloured gemstones. It is necessary to reverse this process and to start developing the sector of coloured gemstones.
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 2. Karma.
01 may 2023
One of the most important marketing goals for natural polished diamonds is creating the image of a ‘new’, ‘previously unused’ polished diamond offered to a consumer as part of a jewellery piece at a boutique or on the jewellery company’s website. In practice, every seller ALWAYS kindly explains the 4Cs (Colour, Clarity, Cut, and Carat weight,) to a consumer and shows the certificates of a reputable gemological laboratory, and as a bonus, provides a ‘very important’ and ‘very useful’ information that a natural rough diamond from which this polished diamond is cut and polished was formed deep in the Earth 2 to 4 billion years ago. But a buyer NEVER gets a real information about whether this polished diamond was on the market before and who was its owner.
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 1. Cost.
24 april 2023
Declaring Russian natural rough and polished diamonds “bloody” and “unethical”, the refusal of world jewellery brands to use Russian diamonds, as well as the refusal of leading gemological laboratories to certify them and a possible G7’s decision to ban the import of polished diamonds of Russian origin into these countries - all these measures hit hard the image of a natural diamond as such and make any generic marketing efforts useless
What are “coloured precious stones” in the Russian jewellery market?
17 april 2023
The Russian sectoral regulatory framework in the mining and circulation of precious metals and precious stones is based on Federal Law No. 41-FZ “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” that introduces the legal term “precious stones” as follows: “precious stones are natural rough diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and alexandrites, as well as natural pearls in raw (natural) and processed form. Unique amber formations are referred to precious stones in accordance with the procedure established by the Government of the Russian Federation. Materials of artificial origin that have the characteristics (properties) of precious stones are not precious stones”. As can be seen from the above list, in addition to rough diamonds, precious stones include a number of coloured gemstones that are conditionally distinguished varieties of certain minerals, and even conditionally distinguished samples of organic matter - amber. According to the logic of the name of these stones (“precious”), all of them should be “high-priced” ones. In relation to their circulation in Russia, there are numerous prohibitions and restrictions set for individuals and numerous specific mandatory requirements that must be implemented by legal entities and private entrepreneurs (that is, professional market participants). And violation of these specific prohibitions and requirements is punished severely by administrative and criminal laws. This is the stand taken by the government on the precious stones. And what is the stand on precious stones taken by final consumers, i.e., by precious stone buyers (the population and the jewellery trade selling jewellery studded with precious stones)? Are they in demand among buyers? What do buyers understand by the term “coloured precious stones”? How much money are buyers willing to pay for them? Is a particularly strict control over their circulation (obviously, not a free-of charge control) important, taking into account the attitude of the consumer community and market participants towards such stones?
