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
Mining and biodiversity conservation in Africa
18 october 2021
Krasnoyarsk hosted an international ecological summit, "Siberian Perspectives," which was held on October 1-2, 2021. Its participants discussed the role of large industrial businesses in biodiversity conservation. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the Africa Bureau at Rough&Polished made a presentation at the event comparing the positive and negative experiences of mining companies in crisis situations and their actions to protect the environment and promote biodiversity.
Coffee break with diamonds
11 october 2021
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the ALROSA’s project to start exchange trading in investment diamonds. Of course, this attempt, like all the previous ones, was a failure. A number of similar foreign initiatives also failed almost at the same time. This gave reason for intellectually solvent analysts to insist again that it is impossible to use polished diamonds - and even more so rough diamonds - as an underlying asset for creating investment instruments. Rough or polished diamonds are not an exchange-traded commodity and never will be such, as the practice has shown. It seems to be an axiom. However, over the past five years, interesting trends have emerged in the industry, making us to look at the problem not so categorically.
Diamond market argues against correction, helped by Beyoncé
04 october 2021
By September, the consensus in the diamond industry on the near-term outlook has become less optimistic despite the holiday season approaching. The majority of the market participants and some experts believe that the market can get new arguments for continued growth as long as there is a shortage of supply and consumer demand in the US remains strong. The other players are of the opinion that the high prices and excessive inventories could result in a bubble beginning to deflate at the slightest cooling off of the consumers to jewelry. Anyway, one cannot but agree that the peaks in the polished diamond prices look dangerous this autumn, when the correction does not spare even such unquestionable beneficiaries of economic growth as palladium and copper. And the structural shortage of semiconductors does not lead to sky-high growth of the manufacturing companies, but, on the contrary, puts pressure on their financial performance, as supply disruptions force the key customers - Volkswagen and Apple - to cut their production. These recent examples indicate that neither bright prospects and demand, nor acute shortages guarantee a long and stable growth. The industry is reacting proactively, involving Beyoncé-class stars to promote its products. But will the polished diamonds be an exception?
Reflecting on artisanal diamond mining in Africa
27 september 2021
The World Bank has estimated that there are more than 41 million people in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector across the globe. The Resource World noted that there were more than 100 million artisanal miners globally in 2019. ASM, it said, accounts for up to 20% of diamond mining. ASM diamond mining is mainly done in Africa. Although this sector in Africa had been associated with illegal diamond mining as some governments failed to provide technical support and create an enabling environment, De Beers is making a difference starting with the Kono District in Sierra Leone. Through GemFair, De Beers started supporting the formalization of the ASM sector in 2018 by raising standards and opening up a new source of ethical diamond supply through the group’s industry-leading distribution channel. It started with 14 member sites to create a secure route to market for ethically-sourced artisanal and small-scale diamonds.
PGI: Platinum jewellery sales indicate increase in Q2 2021
20 september 2021
Platinum Guild International (PGI), in its annual report The Platinum Jewellery Business Review (PJBR), analysed the retail sales of platinum jewellery, trade performance and consumer sentiments in its four key International markets - China, India, Japan and the USA - concluding that China’s economy maintained its recovery momentum into Q2 2021. In India, the economy bounced back, despite the disruptions caused by the second wave of COVID-19, and business started to reopen in the first week of June. Japan’s GDP for Q2 rebounded and delivered better than expected growth. In the US, GDP recovered to pre-pandemic levels despite potential headwinds from a new COVID variant. Platinum jewellery sales of PGI’s strategic partners saw a notable increase in Q2.
Is the trend of ‘engagement watches’ here to stay?
13 september 2021
The engagement ring has a long history, and the concept dates back to the ancient Egyptians. They believed circles to be the symbol of eternity and would exchange handmade rings made from braided reeds. However, in the past 5,000 years, new trends have come up in the world of engagements and proposals globally. Weddings have evolved greatly and while some maintain certain traditions, others venture way out of the box and add personal touches. The engagement trend we are seeing now is more of the ‘engagement watch’.
Polished diamonds and inflation
06 september 2021
It should be noted that in previous years, there was little or no correlation between the movement of the IDEX Diamond Index and the S&P 500 Index. The current situation most likely suggests that the two indicators under consideration are influenced by identical factors, which is understandable as the United States is still the world’s largest consumer of polished diamonds and, apparently, will maintain this status for a long time to come.
“Bling” lovers: Hip-hop culture to be a new driver in the promotion of diamonds
30 august 2021
Whom do you imagine when thinking of expensive diamond jewelry? A bride wearing an engagement ring? A wealthy lady at a social event, a vastly fashionable passtime? A movie star on the red carpet in Cannes? If you think in these categories only, you are doomed to miss out on something interesting. Hip-hop superstars wear jewelry worth thousands and millions of dollars, and thousands and millions of their fans would like to look like them. It remains only to pay attention to this vacant niche and be among the first to occupy it.
“Sun stone” - Russia’s treasure
23 august 2021
Amber has attracted people's attention for many centuries. They made amulets, jewelry from it, decorated the interior with it and used it for medicinal purposes. Now this “sun stone” is gaining momentum and the amber industry is booming. Let's take a closer look at the prospects of this area in Russia in comparison with other “amber” countries. The Kaliningrad region contains 90% of the world's amber reserves, and the main developer of amber deposits is the Kaliningrad Amber Combine. The media are full of news that the plant continues to extract large pieces of amber. Recently the workers of the plant found a 2.5 kg amber stone following the extraction of a stone weighing 12 kg. In honor of the Day of Russia this “sun stone” was named the “Soul of Russia”, as reported by the press service of the enterprise. The rounded stone found by the workers of the Primorsky quarry has a light honey color. Amber stones weighing more than 2 kg are very rare, therefore they are highly valued on the amber market.
On the cusp of a diamond supercycle
16 august 2021
Unlike many commodities, such as non-ferrous metals and steel that accelerated at the end of last year but slowed down in the spring and summer of 2021, the diamond market maintains the achieved high levels and is aiming at new ones. While for public and liquid commodities, the problem of limited supply is quickly resolved within the framework of normal market balancing, in the case with rough diamonds, the deficit becomes systemic. In July, ALROSA predicted the onset of a prolonged period of structural shortage, during which the supply would not match the demand. The inventories of rough and polished diamonds in the pipeline are at their lowest amid the continuing recovery in the jewellery sales markets, while the miners’ ability to ramp up the production is limited. The buyers are eager to fill the inventory gap, which has already driven a 16% rise in the rough diamond price index since the beginning of the year. Despite the fact that this growth significantly outstrips the dynamics of polished diamonds, and the stability of the market raises concerns among a number of its players, there are no obstacles on the way. Even the outbreak of the COVID-19 delta strain in India - although it made it difficult to sell diamonds in April-May - did not cause a full-fledged correction, thus, strengthening the conviction about the possible forming of a supercycle in the diamond market.
