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
Tailing Dumps at the Malyshevskoye Emerald Deposit
31 july 2017
The tailing dump was started in the early 1960s during the development of the Malyshevsky and Aulsky quarries. When mining was over, the wastes (middlings) formed at the beneficiation plant, waste rocks and substandard ores from the Malyshevskaya mine were dumped there. Two dumps were made: one for waste rocks and the other for substandard ores (poor in beryllium oxide). The sampling results and their appraisal showed the following inferred resources: the ore content in the waste dump is 6 mln tonnes; crystal raw materials: emeralds – 9,154 kg, alexandrites - 294 kg, phenacites - 435 kg; the in-place reserves do not include the quantity of beryl that can be extracted and converted into the gem-quality raw materials using the up-to-date technologies. It is an advantage that the ore-bearing rocks has already been unearthed to the surface and is ready to be processed.
What the year of the Fire Rooster brings us: many a carat makes…
24 july 2017
On February 27, 2017, the New Year finally came by the Lunar Calendar. Today, when the Orient determines the global diamond market development trends, the Fire Rooster - the symbol of this year - hopefully will make the life of diamantaires brighter and replenish the diamond miners’ stocks with new carats. Today, five largest companies lead the way in the global diamond mining: De Beers, АLROSА, Rio Tinto, Dominion Diamond Corporation, and Petra Diamonds that produce over three-fourths the diamonds worth of up to 90% of the world diamond value. Based on the reports made by these companies, it is possible to predict the total volume and the value of the rough diamonds mined in the world.
Refinery Discrepancy
17 july 2017
Gold weighted bullion bars are a traditional symbol of welfare and one of the most popular investment tools. Many lines of profession – starting from a geologist to a smelter furnace-operator - are engaged in making a bullion bar, and its manufacture crowns a long production process and logistics. While many gold mining companies prefer to show 999-gold bullion bars in their presentations, more often their end-products are Dore bars. As a rule, it is a gold-silver alloy containing 70% to 85% of gold and up to 5% of byproduct non-precious metals. Dore bars are unsmooth, dark, each weighing about 23 kg, so they do not at all look like the gold the majority of people dream about. These are sent to the refineries where they undergo melting-down, are decontaminated and finally become traditional bank fine gold bars. It is the refinery hallmark that is an integral part of a marking used for a 999 gold bar. And there are reasons for that. First, Dore bars are supplied to the refineries by many gold miners and the metal melts in a ‘common pot’, to put it literally. Second, often this is not about tolling refining but about buying and selling of the gold-containing raw material, in other words, the refineries hold full rights for their end-products. This peculiar feature of the interaction between producers and refineries serves a purpose of collection of indirect taxes to the budget and is an obstacle for the increase in the refineries’ production, whose capacities are far from optimum utilization under the conditions of stagnating gold mining.
Diamond Industry Faces Growing Challenge from Recycled Diamonds
10 july 2017
Almost nine years after the global economic crisis struck, one offshoot is continuing to have an effect on the diamond and jewelry industries, and that is recycled diamonds. Nobody in the industry really has any idea of the size of recycled diamonds, with estimates ranging from 5-10 percent of the market. They remain a minor part of the industry, but nonetheless continue to be a factor despite the recovery of the American economy.
Will the cutting and polishing and jewellery industries revive in Yakutia?
03 july 2017
The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) revealed the cutting and polishing and jewellery industries’ performance data for 2016. The slide in the cutting and polishing industry - in USD terms - was 35%, and in the jewellery industry 30.5% as compared to the performance in 2015. It indicates that this segment in the processing industry is still in a crisis state since 2011.
New Thai Mid-Year Show Gets Off To A Successful Start
26 june 2017
The first Thailand Gems & Jewelry Fair launched by the Thai Gems and Jewellery Trade Association (TGJTA) took place in mid-June with almost 13,000 visitors participating. Show organizers said that there were 5,728 visitors from overseas and 7,216 domestic visitors at the June 15-18 show. The countries with the highest number of visitors at the show were China, India, Myanmar, Japan and the USA.
Botswana Discovers That Beneficiation Process Not So Easy
19 june 2017
When the Diamond Trading Company decided to move the bulk of its services to the Botswana capital of Gaborone in 2011, it was due to mark the start of a new chapter in the diamond industry. Instead of transferring the country's rough diamonds out of the country shortly after they had been mined, as had been the case for dozens of years, basing the DTC’s operations in Botswana was seen as providing a huge boost for the country’s beneficiation campaign. Although the concept of beneficiation really began in South Africa under former President Thabo Mbeki, ironically that country has been left behind while other diamond producing states in southern African have moved ahead, particularly Botswana and, to a lesser extent, Namibia. The Botswana government and diamond industry officials have repeatedly stated that their aim is to create polished goods and even diamond-set jewelry at home and then export them. That would mean not just badly needed work in a country which suffers from high unemployment, but also a skills transfer and the creation of many thousands of extra jobs in associated services. However, the reality of establishing diamond cutting and polishing plants in Botswana and manufacturing diamonds profitably has been very different from the original plan.
Godlike pontification
12 june 2017
I love stories about distorting facts to please business interests. Dear readers, I have prepared another one for your attention. From time to time, every one of us wants to feel being God, or at least a preacher, and pronounce fiery speeches, full of truth, to inspire others and stigmatize unworthy people. And all this to enjoy the way people listen to you open-mouthed and believe every word you say without reserve. Previously, this was difficult to achieve. Not everyone was lucky to be born into the family of a pastor or diplomat and not everyone was lucky to become a superstar, or to have studied at Harvard to become an expensive lawyer. Most people had only to be satisfied with the attention from friends and co-workers. Now, of course, it is much easier, as there is the Internet. Everyone (for instance, even me) can become a preacher on the Web, as it is just enough to write catchy articles and not stint on their promotion.
Retailers' results show that US jewelry sales failing to take off
05 june 2017
Not an easy time for the retail jewelry industry in the United States seems to be a fairly accurate representation of the state of sales in the first months of 2017 at least. That's according to financial results reported by Signet Jewelers, the largest jewelry retailer in the United States which also operates in Canada and the United Kingdom and thus gives a view of the state of play in those markets as well, and Tiffany & Co, which gives an insight into the higher end of the retail jewelry sector. Ironically, the economy was supposed to receive a boost from the election of President Trump, which analysts said would be good for business. The delays in pushing through a national budget by the Trump administration, however, have created a degree of uncertainty. In addition, geopolitical shocks and the haphazard way the administration has been seen to be managing its operations have done little to instill confidence in consumers at home and abroad.
Future rough diamond shortfall? Possibly but not a certainty
29 may 2017
The beginning of commercial mining at the Gahcho Kue diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories at the start of March put the spotlight again on the issue of the scarcity of significant diamond mines coming on stream. Together with the depletion of large mining operations around the world, the industry is starting to try to estimate when the shortfall will come into play.
