Exclusive
De Beers: Some sightholders unable to meet environmental commitments
The diamond miner had been working with its rough diamond customers known as Sightholders to understand their environmental commitments and journey towards carbon neutrality. It developed, with the help of the Carbon Trust, a set of tools that it requires...
Today
Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge: KP has an opportunity to deliver an updated definition of conflict diamonds
Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge told Rough&Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa that the KP has the perfect set of circumstances to restore the certification scheme's credibility by backing, ushering in and implementing an effective traceability solution for the...
13 may 2024
Zimnisky: Diamonds are incongruent with Anglo's longer-term strategy of focusing on commodities for green infrastructure
It was recently reported that the diversified miner Anglo American, which is subject to a takeover by BHP Group for $39 billion, is considering selling its subsidiary De Beers. New York-based independent diamond and jewellery analyst Paul Zimnisky told...
06 may 2024
ODC managing director Mmetla Masire: We need to be responsible and not oversupply the market
Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) managing director Mmetla Masire told Rough&Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa in an exclusive interview that there is still a lot of inventory and there is a need for all players in the diamond industry to trade responsibly...
22 april 2024
Varvara Dmitrieva: The jewelry industry of Yakutia is distinguished by its creativity, unique cultural code and conservation of traditions
Varvara Dmitrieva, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Precious Stones and Metals Processing Technologies of the North-Eastern Federal University, told Rough&Polished about the results of the Forum of jewelry Craftsmanship and the prospects...
16 april 2024
Cynicism and profit: A word about the “Rough Diamonds” TV series
17 july 2023
The cannibalization of the natural rough diamond market by lab-grown diamond (LGD) producers continues to rapidly gain momentum. Coincidentally or not, but 2023 was marked not only by aggressive expansion of LGDs, but also by the release of the “Rough Diamonds” TV series.
The nickel market seeks a cure for resource nationalism
10 july 2023
The nickel price in H1 2023 showed the worst dynamics among any non-ferrous metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME), despite record low exchange warehouse stocks of the metal (equal to 5 days of global consumption) and strong growing demand for Class 1 nickel used in batteries. From the beginning of the year to the end of June, nickel prices fell by 26.5%.
Understanding synthetic diamonds prospects through grown gemstones history
03 july 2023
It's no secret that synthetic diamonds are getting traction and there are reasons for this development. However, the diamond market is not the first one to be shaken by synthetic gemstones but almost certainly the most recent, with a significant impact being observed in the last five to ten years give or take.Can we prognosticate the prospects of natural and synthetic diamond markets through history of similar industries? Let us find out.
The application of the General Taxation System to gold will continue
26 june 2023
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the representatives of public organizations of small-scale jewelry businesses discussed the tax legislation with federal officials, including the Head of the Federal Tax Service Daniil Egorov and Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Sazanov.
Platinum to become most demanded among precious metals
19 june 2023
Platinum outperformed the precious metals in 2022, gaining 12% compared to a nearly 2% drop in palladium and moderate growth in gold and silver (up 1.3% and 4.8%, respectively). This result is remarkable in that it was achieved against the backdrop of a declining, but still oversupplied market. This year, most market players estimate that platinum deficit will finally come due to unsolvable power supply problems for South African manufacturers and a significant increase in demand from the auto sector where platinum is actively replacing palladium in gasoline car catalytic converters.
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 4. Conclusion and some special questions
18 june 2023
A natural polished diamond image defined by the three above coordinates should become the basis of the narratives based on a historical content created within the framework of the model under consideration. Working with an image in such a four-dimensional space (“Cost”, “Karma”, “Ecology” + time) is very convenient because it allows to adapt the model to consumer audiences that differ in language, gender, country, age, as well as in social, cultural, and other features, by varying the weight of coordinates and time ranges. Accordingly, the image of lab-grown diamonds (LGD) is created as an antithesis in the same coordinates.
Lucara’s Karowe underground project on track
05 june 2023
In 2014 I spoke with the then Lucara Diamond chief operating officer, Paul Day on the sidelines of the Botswana Resource Sector Conference. He said at the time that enhanced contained value per tonne at Karowe mine in Botswana provided an opportunity for an underground operation at the mine beyond 2026.
Norilsk Nickel: Priority to sustainable development
01 june 2023
At the presentation on May 23 in Moscow, the management of Norilsk Nickel presented the main results in the field of sustainable development for 2022, which were discussed by representatives of the company's regions of presence, the scientific and expert community, as well as by Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished.
“Lies, Damn Lies… and Statistics”
29 may 2023
Last year, the ‘Knot’, the highly rated American wedding magazine asked 12,000 newly wed couples whether they chose a natural or a lab-grown diamond for their engagement ring? This year they published the result… 36% chose the latter. In context, that’s by weight, not value, and engagement rings make up only 25% of the diamond jewellery market, but even so…, that’s a worryingly big number. In fact, the natural diamond industry is under threat as never before. The Natural Diamond Council does a fantastic job of promoting the “Diamond Dream” but it’s massively underfunded. Russia is (for obvious reasons) persona non grata, and the Kimberley Process is unsuited and unable to bring in the necessary changes. So yet again the industry falls back on the partnership which has given stability to the industry for the last half century – De Beers and the Government of Botswana… except you may not have noticed; their relationship may be about to go up in smoke.
Natural polished diamond countermarketing essentials. Part 3. Ecology.
22 may 2023
In 1978, 40 km east of a small town of Aikhal (its ALROSA’s Aikhal Mining and Processing Plant is the largest local employer) in Yakutia, an industrial nuclear explosion “Kraton-3” (force of explosion is 22 kt) was carried out for the purpose of seismic sounding. The explosion was accidental with the release of radionuclides to the surface. In 1992, plutonium isotopes exceeding the background concentrations by 55,000 (fifty-five thousand) times were detected in the samples taken in the downwind fallout areas. In 2001, radionuclides from fragments and induced radionuclides were recorded in soil samples in these downwind fallout areas, including cobalt-60, strontium-90, antimony-125, and cesium-137. The concentration of strontium-90 in the soil in the explosion area was 1,000 times higher than background values, and the concentration of cesium-137 was 1,500 times higher. The content of cesium-137 in the young larches grown in the areas where the trees died in the explosion area is more than 80 times higher than the background values. In 1974, in Yakutia, 2.5 km north-east of the small town of Udachny (its ALROSA’s Udachninsky Mining and Processing Plant is the largest local employer), an industrial nuclear explosion “Kristall” (force of explosion is 1.7 kt) was carried out to create a tailing dump. A total of 8 such explosions were planned, but as the “Kristall” explosion turned out to be an accidental one and its explosion products released into the atmosphere and formed a radioactive cloud, the barbarous experiment was not continued. 18 years (!) later, the explosion area was “decontaminated” in 1992 - just covered with waste rock from the Udachny quarry. Nevertheless, in 2001, the results of the analysis of reindeer moss samples taken several hundred metres away from the explosion epicentre showed that the concentrations of strontium-90 and cesium-137 were by an order of magnitude higher than the background values. In both cases of accidental industrial nuclear explosions in Yakutia, nothing was reported to the local communities about them until the disintegration of the USSR. Apart from the consequences of accidental nuclear explosions and the still unclear consequences of “non-accidental” nuclear explosions (totally, there were 22 of them in the diamond provinces), the diamond mining industry has done and continues to do irreparable environmental damage in all regions of the planet where diamond deposits are being operated.
