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
Diamond Market: Rush demand vs. inflationary pressure
21 february 2022
The last year has instilled an idea into in the minds of most diamond market analysts that the only obstacle for its growth may be the limited global diamond production. This thesis is strongly supported by diamond miners. Increasingly, their presentations focus on the resource depletion and capital-intensive projects related to developing the few new deposits or extending the life of the existing ones. At the same time, the final part of the diamond pipeline, jewellery retail, is expected to enjoy a steady consumer demand. There are certainly grounds for optimism as the key market, the United States, has been showing its double-digit growth in jewellery sales since July 2020. But as inflation rises, there are also growing risks that the deeper concerns at the prices can interrupt the jewellery retail’s steady growth dynamics. The big question is whether the diamond market players will be able to shift the burden of their rising costs onto their buyers, while maintaining their desire to purchase jewellery.
Platinum: from a “fake” metal to one of the most expensive metals
14 february 2022
Throughout the history of mankind, the demand for certain types of mineral raw materials has been constantly changing. This has always been caused by the progress in science and technology, changes in the structure of the economy, and the discovery of new deposits. Today, it is obvious that the focus in mining and manufacture is shifting from the “traditional” types of raw materials (for example, iron, coal, chromium) to those resources that are in demand from new and advanced technologies. The talk is, in particular, about the platinum group metals (PGMs, platinoids).
Diamond “OPEC”: to be or not to be
07 february 2022
The discovery of a transparent small pebble in 1866 on the bank of the Orange River near today’s city of Kimberley made South Africa one of the richest countries on the African continent. A 15-year-old son of the De Beers livestock farmer picked up the pebble from the ground. The curious find was given to a local collector of stones, but he could not determine what it was. Only after some time, it was found out it was a rough diamond. For this reason, this event is considered the first commercial diamond production. Although most likely, people found diamonds before, just no one knew what kind of pebbles they picked up and what their value was.
About the book “World Diamond Market. From Inception to the Present State” by A. V. Nikolashchenko. Part II
31 january 2022
In 2019, the Moscow publishing house URSS put out a monograph by A. V. Nikolashchenko “World Diamond Market. From Inception to the Present State”. This very voluminous work (over 700 pages) was created by the author having over 35 years of experience in the diamond market as an employee of the Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, Almazyuvelirexport, and ALROSA. The abstract positions the work as the one slightly pulling back the “curtain over the world of the diamond trade closed from outsiders” and intended for specialists “in the field of diamond mining and trade, diamond manufacture, as well as for economists, historians, political scientists”. Such extensive monographs are published rather rarely. It is all the more surprising that in the two years that have passed since its publication, the book by Nikolashchenko has not received any serious reviews and responses in specialized publications. Perhaps, this is due to the fact that the book does not have an electronic version, and the circulation of its paper version turned out to be insufficient to cover an adequate audience. Meanwhile, the work by Nikolashchenko deserves the closest attention, at least, because of its rather unexpected claim to be absolutely exclusive.
About the book “World Diamond Market. From Inception to the Present State” by A. V. Nikolashchenko. Part I
24 january 2022
In 2019, the Moscow publishing house URSS put out a monograph by A. V. Nikolashchenko “World Diamond Market. From Inception to the Present State”. This very voluminous work (over 700 pages) was created by the author having over 35 years of experience in the diamond market as an employee of the Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, Almazyuvelirexport, and ALROSA. The abstract positions the work as the one slightly pulling back the “curtain over the world of the diamond trade closed from outsiders” and intended for specialists “in the field of diamond mining and trade, diamond manufacture, as well as for economists, historians, political scientists”. Such extensive monographs are published rather rare. It is all the more surprising that in the two years that have passed since its publication, the book by Nikolashchenko has not received any serious reviews and responses in specialized publications. Perhaps, this is due to the fact that the book does not have an electronic version, and the circulation of its paper version turned out to be insufficient to cover an adequate audience. Meanwhile, the work by Nikolashchenko deserves the closest attention, at least, because of its rather unexpected claim to be absolutely exclusive.
Will the diamond market face obstacles on the way toward new records?
17 january 2022
It appears from all the available indicators that the diamond market is entering the holiday season with insufficient inventories at all value chains due to the reduction in supply. The jewellery sales remain strong, and early data on the Americans' spending on the Thanksgiving Day holiday allow to feel upbeat about the Christmas period. An obstacle in this seemingly inevitable ‘race’ for records may be the factor of the low profitability of the cutting and polishing sector, which aggravated against the background of the rough diamond shortage and slowed down the polished diamond price growth. The market already stumbled over this problem several years ago, however, the picture was completed by the decline in jewellery sales at that time. But now, the already two-fold gap in the dynamics of the rough and polished diamond growth may be aggravated against the background of the new strain of COVID-19 spreading in South Africa that generates disruptions in the diamond supply and poses the risks of a larger deficit.
Russian jewellers were fostered by impecunious buyers
10 january 2022
The news that the Russian Ministry of Finance set out to create a marketplace focused on the export of Russian-made jewellery to the global market was widely discussed among the Russian jewellery market players. What the Russian jewellery industry can expect from such a marketplace?
PGI: Performance of platinum jewellery in four major markets during Q3
03 january 2022
The ‘Platinum Jewellery Business Review’ released a research study of platinum jewellery’s performance in four major markets--- the USA, China, India & Japan--- during Q3 2021. According to the statement, China’s GDP slowed in Q3 with the lowest rate in 2021. Japan’s economy faced challenges primarily driven by a power crunch and supply chain state of emergency in Q3. Platinum sales grew but at a slower pace than other categories.
Retail investment in 2022: Gold vs diamonds
27 december 2021
Inflation in the United States has broken a multi-year record as the consumer price index rose by 6.8% year-on-year in November this year, hitting a 30-year high. In an attempt to counteract this threatening trend, the Fed has intensified its implementation of the quantitative easing reduction and promises to completely stop the liquidity injection in March 2022, and not in June, as previously planned. It is also expected that the interest rate on federal loan funds in 2022 will be raised to 0.9% from the current range of 0% - 0.25%.
The all-metal shell of Russian tourism
22 december 2021
Russia’s pivot from commodities extraction to the development of its vast territories as tourism destinations exceeds US$30 billion and gets noticed.
