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
Future of diamonds with young generations
24 september 2018
De Beers noted recently in its ‘Diamond Insight Report 2018’ that demand for diamond jewellery reached $82-billion in 2017, a 2 percent growth from the previous year’s $80 billion. It attributed the growth to sustained robust growth in the US and a return to growth in US dollar terms in China. Of particular interest was the Millennial and Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers, who when combined, accounted for 66 percent of global diamond sales last year, according to De Beers.
The diamond industry of Botswana, its current state and prospects
17 september 2018
Botswana has a rich mineral base of diamonds – its reserves of these precious stones reach about 340 million carats, while the country’s resources (including the reserves) exceed 905 million carats. The country is consistently among the top three diamond producers in the world, both in volume and value terms. In 2017, Botswana produced almost 23 million carats of diamonds (taking the third place after Russia and Canada) worth $ 3,329 million (turning second only to Russia). Virtually all of the country's diamonds are mined by Debswana, which is owned in equal parts by the Botswana government and De Beers, a subsidiary of the Anglo American Group.
Yakutia’s and Russia’s diamond manufacturing industries against the background of global diamond business
10 september 2018
The performance figures of Yakutia’s diamond manufacturing and jewelry industries for 2017 are not encouraging. Compared to 2011, the decline in the diamond manufacturing industry was 63% and in the jewelry industry it reached 30.5% in US dollar terms. This indicates that this processing segment continues to be in a downturn since 2011.
Lightning before the thunder
03 september 2018
As in the case of weapons production there should be eternal enemies, so in the case of diamonds passions, ambitions, greed, treachery, arrogance, love, devotion, desire for beauty - all this hellish cocktail is also eternal. But is the present fetish itself eternal, which is needed as a material symbol for all this?
World diamond industry in 2017
20 august 2018
In July this year, the Kimberley Process once again published statistics on diamond mining and trade by the countries of the world in 2017. Last year, the same 23 countries were engaged in industrial diamond mining as in 2016.
Fake for the rich, expensive for the poor
13 august 2018
It is easy to see: today De Beers with its "eternal" conservative values fixed in the minds of young people involuntarily gets into confrontation with the ideology of Apple based on "here and now" and – is losing to it! You can repeat as much as you like that the trend towards "green" and "ethical" goods is very good for the global jewelry industry, but the truth is that it is just an attempt to "pull someone else's blanket on yourself."
Angola crafts new path for diamond sector, loosens Dos Santos’ family grip
30 july 2018
The election of João Lourenço as Angola’s new president last September after almost four decades of Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ rule has brought so much hope in the southern African country, which is one of the leading crude oil and diamond producers. Dos Santos’ family had a tight grip on Angola, but that has changed, as the new leader was acting on his promise to tackle family monopolies and make Angola more attractive to investors.
Prospects for world diamond mining industry
24 july 2018
According to our estimates, global diamond reserves are about 2 billion carats, while diamond resources reach 4.4 billion carats. Taking into account the rather high rates of production (134.1 million carats in 2016), the raw material base of precious stones can be exhausted in little more than thirty years.
Everyone must get out of the shadows: How to change Russian legislation regulating the turnover of precious stones and precious metals
09 july 2018
The overregulation in Russia’s trade in precious stones and metals has put some part of the country’s jewelry market into the shadow economy, and small workshops are balancing on the edge of ruin. At the same time, the extractive industry continues to grapple with the competing "black diggers" and demands even more tighter legislation. Besides business, this is a no-win situation for the State, as it receives less taxes, and for ordinary consumers as well. The necessity to change this situation has ripened long ago, but the problem is how to observe the interests of all parties concerned.
One Carat Rounds – Largely Stable, With Some Exceptions
02 july 2018
A few months ago, we looked at the changing prices of third carats, and then we examined the price trend of two-carats. This week we examine the price trend of what is considered the standard diamond – the one-carat round.
