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
Investing in precious metals is the best option during uncertain times…
04 july 2022
Gold, platinum, palladium and silver have been recognized as valuable metals and have been coveted for a long time. Today, in a savvy investor’s portfolio, precious metals find an important place simply because of the ease of monetizing them during needy times despite their price volatility.
Seven observations about the diamond pipeline
27 june 2022
Recently, Pranay Narvekar and Chaim Even Zohar published their "2021 Pipeline" report on the IDEX platform. It makes for interesting reading, but in some instances, the authors seem to have formed opinions earlier that they find difficult to let off later.
Zim-Russia platinum project: a dream deferred?
20 june 2022
It was reported on 16 September 2014 that Zimbabwe’s Pen East Investments had teamed up with Vi Holdings through its JSC Afromet subsidiary, to form Great Dyke Investments (GDI), which planned to develop a $3 billion platinum mining project in Darwendale. It was also revealed at the time that Russia’s Vneshecombank would be the lead financier, while arms conglomerate Rostec was a technical partner. The Darwendale project, which is located in the mineral-rich Great Dyke belt was touted as the single biggest investment in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The mine had a lifespan of 20 years, with the potential to reach 34 years on further exploration and would see the Darwendale concession on 217 million tonnes of high-grade ore. “The advent of the Russians in Zimbabwe’s platinum scene will bring an additional 250,000 ounces to our current output of 430,000 ounces within the next 36 months,” Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa was quoted as saying by The Source, a Reuters affiliate publication in Zimbabwe.
Changes in China’s diamond and jewellery industry in recent years…
13 june 2022
During the past few years, China’s diamond and jewellery industry has been growing in leaps and bounds, reaching the second largest market next only to the US. But in the last couple of years, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, China’s growth had slowed down to some extent. According to market watchers, unlike the US and Europe, China and the Far East have not picked up after slowing down with the outbreak of the pandemic. Though China slowly overcame the pandemic and was moving towards normalcy, the recent covid pandemic that struck again slowed down the country’s economy, affecting the diamond and jewellery sector in particular. The current lockdown in certain parts of the country will do more damage than expected, according to market analysts. According to the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China, the country’s diamond market reached about 79 billion RMB in 2021. China is currently the second-largest diamond industry globally. It is also the top consumer of gold in the world.
Palladium rally does not remove questions about the future
06 june 2022
At the end of last year, a significant part of experts expected a rally in palladium in 2022 after its price approached the COVID lows reached in December at $1,600 an ounce. This forecast was based on a revival in the automotive sector due to the normalized availability of chips and a shortage of metal in the market coming to 500 000 ounces. The palladium rally indeed happened - but the reason for this was not the normalized situation in the auto industry, which is so far producing disappointing results this year primarily due to a slower than expected elimination of the chip shortage. In early March, palladium peaked at $3,339 an ounce amid wide-ranging Western economic sanctions against Russia and concerns about the availability of Russian metal. Although the price dropped to $2,200 an ounce later in the month as Norilsk Nickel's palladium continued to enter the market, the risks associated with Russian palladium create additional uncertainty for consumers and contribute to price volatility.
The Rising Decline of Institutional Credibility
30 may 2022
On the 04th March 2022, the United Arab Emirates was placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey’ list, an inclusion that not only comes with increased monitoring and scrutiny, but the possibility of reputational damage, ratings adjustments, challenges obtaining global finance and higher transaction costs. Responding to the announcement, the UAE’s Executive Office of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing stated that, “the UAE takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously and will work closely with FATF to quickly remedy the areas of improvement identified.” The UAE also committed to implementing the recommendations of the International Cooperation Review Group’s (ICRG) Action Plan to remove itself from the grey list as quickly as possible.
Oil discovery in Namibia: Lessons that can be derived from diamond mining
16 may 2022
Shell confirmed the discovery of light oil at the Graff-1 well offshore Namibia in early February, which marked the first oil find for the southern African country. The Graff-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5,376 meters in water depths of approximately 2,000 meters. Further drilling in the petroleum exploration licence (PEL) 0039 area is expected to begin towards the end of 2022.
Jewellers’ costs for self-control are rising
09 may 2022
The fact that there is an intention in Russia to replace traditional currencies - the dollar and euro - for gold as an investment tool for the population became clear even when the Tax Code of the Russian Federation was amended to allow the sale of refined gold bars by individuals without a VAT. Now, the idea of a more global replacement of the dollar and euro with gold has been further developed. N. P. Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation told this in his interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russian Newspaper) to confirm these intentions of the State. He said that in the project proposed by the scientific community to create a two-circuit monetary and financial system in Russia, the rouble will be backed by gold, as well as by a group of goods that are currency assets, in accordance with the real purchasing power parity. However, E. S. Nabiullina, Chairwoman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, made a statement later “As for the pegging of the rouble exchange rate to gold, this is not discussed in any way.” That, however, does not mean that this will not be discussed later.
Global gold market
02 may 2022
Gold has been known to people from the earliest times. Since it occurs in nature in a free (native) state, and not only in the form of compounds, perhaps, gold can be considered one of the first metals discovered by people. In different periods of the development of the world economy and monetary relations, the role of gold changed. However, its function as a reliable means of wealth preservation remained unchanged.
“De Beers visited me in the spring…”
25 april 2022
One hundred years ago, in the spring of 1922, Leonid Krasin, the People’s Commissar (Minister) of Foreign Trade of the RSFSR, wrote a letter to the Bolsheviks’ leader Vladimir Lenin about the Soviet Russia’ situation in the diamond market, in which, in particular, he stated that “... De Beers visited me in the spring and reproached us for completely spoiling the market because of the Comintern sales and forcing it to shut down the mines in Africa. The company offered to arrange a syndicate, not to sell in small quantities, but to sell all stock through it, and promised to grant a loan against security. Not knowing whether we had a large stock in the Gokhran or whether everything had already been sold out, I did not give a definite answer and dragged out the negotiations... As soon as I definitely know that there are a lot of valuables and that they will not “leak away” and will not be sold by non-professionals, a syndicate can be organized ... However, it is not safe to immediately export the entire quantity abroad: in case of cancellation of the trade agreements, they can lay their hands on the valuables. I think to keep the quantity of stones for no more than 30-50 million and replenish as they are sold”.
