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
Rough diamonds, apartheid and a little bit of conspiracy
09 august 2021
The reason for writing this article was an interesting discussion between the famous Russian Africanists Yu. S. Skubko and V. G. Shubin. The controversy was initiated by Yu. S. Skubko’s article “Rough Diamonds for Apartheid. Cooperation between the USSR and De Beers: A New Pragmatism or the Development of an Old Partnership?”. Yu. S. Skubko developed some provisions of this work in his report “National Interests above Ideology: Soviet Rough Diamond Deals with the South African De Beers Cartel during the Cold War” presented at the scientific conference in Leipzig “Areas of Cooperation between the Socialist Countries and the Global South in the Cold War Era”. These works were very sharply criticized by V. G. Shubin in his article “More About Rough Diamonds”, some of its theses had something in common with his work “Moscow and Armed Struggle in South Africa” that was extremely valuable and rich in facts. In our opinion, the most important topics of this interesting dispute can be summarized as follows: Why the USSR, being the main De Beers’ counterparty in the global rough diamond market, simultaneously financed and organizationally supported the African National Congress (ANC), the main goal of which was destroying the “white” Republic of South Africa where De Beers and Anglo-American played a critical role in its economic system and Were the trade of the USSR with De Beers and the financing of the ANC by the Soviet Union separate processes or were they interrelated ones? The difference between the opponents was that Yu. S. Skubko assessed the agreements with De Beers, the “then monopolist” and, accordingly, “disregard for ideological dogmas” as a pragmatic and customary move made by the Soviet regime, and V. G. Shubin said that was a forced step, and the West should be blamed (sic!) for this! But both authors seemed to agree that the rough diamond business was not connected with the Soviet programmes aimed at supporting the ANC. We have a different opinion and will try to substantiate it.
“Après Moi, le déluge”
02 august 2021
In 1902, Queen Victoria’s oldest son and the future King Edward VII, commissioned Jacques Cartier to make 27 diamond tiaras for his coronation. It was with reason that he named Cartier “jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”. Now if Jacques had turned to his Majesty and enquired if “His Majesty prefers some cheaper lab-grown diamonds because he could have had much bigger ones for the same price”, there would probably have been more than just a royal eyebrow that rocketed skywards. An instant command to the Grenadier Guards to “fix bayonets” and Cartier might well have become part of history.
Sustainable development of diamond mining companies as an indicator of the harmonious development of the industry
26 july 2021
Nowadays, every company - except the laziest one - reasons about the sustainable development (SD). The issues related to responsible business, commitment to the ESG criteria, the publication of non-financial statements are becoming more relevant every day, and in the near future, those “lazy” companies risk being far behind those ones that set a course for the development by taking into account high environmental, social and governance standards in due time. The issue of climate change and, in particular, the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, is of particular importance now. Most companies give much attention to this issue despite the fact that for the diamond mining industry, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is not very urgent (the total greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) made by the global diamond mining companies in 2019 amounted to about 3.2 mn tonnes of CO2-eqv., while the emissions (Scope 1) made, for example, by gold mining company Barric Gold alone in 2019 amounted to 5.9 mn tonnes of CO2-eqv.). Without trying to compile any ratings and rankings, let us consider how the Russian and foreign4 companies disclose the information about this and other environmental and social issues, what measures they take for sustainable development, and what ambitious goals they set for the future.
PGI Report: Platinum jewellery sales continues to grow in Q1
19 july 2021
The recent report ‘Platinum Jewellery Business Review (PJBR) Q1 2021’ released by Platinum Guild International (PGI) indicates that platinum jewellery retailers and manufacturers reported a sustained recovery across three of four key markets, despite the ongoing pandemic’s challenges in the jewellery industry. Huw Daniel, Chief Executive Officer of PGI said: “The jewellery industry has seen precious jewellery demand return in the first quarter of 2021, but the recovery could slow in some markets as subsequent waves of COVID cloud the outlook. Other than accelerated trends within the industry, what we’ve seen in the last year is a renewed enthusiasm for platinum. Jewellers are increasingly engaging with this precious metal, which has been effectively marketed as a metal of meaning and become important as consumers look for ways to symbolise and mark occasions in restricted and unprecedented times.” The report also said that a recent consumer survey highlights a continued positive consumer sentiment and a strong appetite for precious jewellery during these difficult times in different consuming markets.
Norilsk Nickel sets its ESG priorities
12 july 2021
Norilsk Nickel, one of the major producers of metals required for the transition to a “green economy”, has published its 2020 Sustainability Report. Its key parts are the environmental program and the interaction with the indigenous minorities of the North. The focus on these issues stems from both the environmental challenges faced by the company last year and the upcoming introduction of a carbon tax in the EU. While implementing its $3.6 bn environmental Sulfur Programme 2.0 aimed at reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 95%, the company does not yet set ultimate targets for achieving carbon neutrality. This is due to the current lack of technological solutions for decarbonization. Without waiting for technological breakthroughs, Norilsk Nickel started taking concrete steps in this area. In the summer of this year, the company began producing batches of low-carbon nickel; active work is underway to replace petroleum products with alternative power sources.
Rough diamond pricing: Learn the lessons of history or history will repeat itself
05 july 2021
Rough diamond price rises in the first (almost) six months of this year have been spectacular. So why aren't investors rushing into diamond stocks? The Northern Miner asked my opinion... they've been very badly burnt before by companies using over-optimistic forecasts. Caveat Emptor!
On falsification of diamond history
28 june 2021
Recently, there has been published the latest issue of the London Geological Society’s journal “GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY - SPECIAL PUBLICATION” (vol. 506, 2021). It is about the women who have played an outstanding role in the history of geological science, and contains a feature titled “Women at the dawn of diamond discovery in Siberia or how two women discovered the Siberian diamond province”. The article has two authors - Ekaterina S. Kiseeva and Rishat N. Yuzmukhametov. The first author is positioned as an employee of the Oxford University, the second one represents the West-Yakutian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). This work is about the lives of two discoverers of the Yakutian diamonds - L. Popugayeva and N. Sarsadskikh and at first glance, it is a good-quality commemorative text intended for solving purely educational tasks. However, the authors put the well-known Popugayeva’s and Sarsadskikh’s story (to a large extent, thanks to Yuzmukhametov’s efforts) in a very peculiar context that deserves close attention and analysis in view of clearly erroneous basic premises.
Diamond demand is between the COVID-19 crisis in India and the pent-up demand for travelling
21 june 2021
The main statistics used by the diamond market experts in April-May were the data on the number of COVID-19 infections in India. The restrictions on the activities of the Indian cutters could put pressure on the demand and become a key trigger for the market slowdown, especially during its traditional seasonal weakness. In March, after the growth in the first two months of this year, the sales of the major suppliers, ALROSA and De Beers, were below their historical levels for this period by 26% and 15%, respectively. The reason for this is a structural reduction in their mining capacities, during which the diamond supplies this year will decline by 20% compared to 2019.
Toward a fair and sustainable diamond supply pipeline
14 june 2021
While there is a surge in polished sales, especially of larger sizes, many retailers - small and large – still seem hesitant to put out substantial cash to purchase diamonds and replenish their stocks. Requests for memo goods are on the rise. Frankly, this again puts manufacturers, importers, and wholesalers in a bind. Once again, just like before the arrival of the “Next Normal,” the midstream is left holding the bag.
On the monograph by N. G. Khromova “Diamond Facets of Russian-Indian Cooperation”
07 june 2021
In 2020, RUSCIENCE publishers, Moscow, released the monograph by N. Khromova “Diamond Facets of Russian-Indian Cooperation” (Russian: Алмазные грани российско-индийского сотрудничества). As the abstract says, “The monograph - for the first time in Russia - gives a comprehensive analysis of the prerequisites and trends of the Russian-Indian cooperation in the diamond industry in 1992-2018. It contains some practical recommendations for the development of the domestic rough and polished diamond industry and offers some promising forms of Russian-Indian cooperation in this sector of the economy. In addition, the issues of the development are studied and the individual characteristics of the Russian and Indian diamond industries are considered ....” The large-scale analytical studies of the diamond market by the Russian authors are relatively rare and deserve very close attention, at least because of Russia’s role in the global diamond industry.
