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...
12 october 2026
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
Good and bad news from holiday sales in China
19 march 2012
On January 23, China celebrated its most important holiday of the year – Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. For the Chinese, it is of equal importance as Christmas for the Europeans and Americans and New Year for the Russians. The jewelry industry traditionally holds high expectations for these holidays. In past years, jewelers’ hopes pinned on Chinese New Year were justified. In this article, we summarize the results of sales this year and analyze the trends behind dry metrics.
ALROSA’s free float at the crossroads
16 march 2012
For over a year the market has been waiting for definite actions on floating some of ALROSA’s stock being curious about what amount of shareholding will be sold, at what time and in what manner. Probably because of the long wait, mass media is now getting impatient about the results of the company’s Supervisory Board meeting to be held on March 16. Earlier it was reported that this meeting may dwell on the stock privatization issue.
"Black & Russian" - Bailout Cocktail
11 march 2012
In the end of 2008, while reviewing the situation evolving in the DRC, Rough&Polished suggested a quick escalation of armed violence in Africa. The ensued Arab Spring, as well as reports about an unprecedented scale of liquidity "pumping" undertaken by the U.S. Federal Reserve strengthened our assumption about the inevitable immersion of the Black Continent in the chaos of bad civil strife, the main objectives of which will be de-escalation of Chinese presence as well as a total limitation put on production of commodities.
February market report
05 march 2012
It seems that market players were "fired up" by the reduction in supply and price adjustments carried out by major diamond producers in January. Now we can talk about growing demand and intensifying trade. However, this movement has a variety of ways in different segments of rough.
Luxury sector, the most resilient to economic shocks
27 february 2012
Many studies conducted around the world last year confirmed that the luxury sector was the most resilient to economic shocks compared to other markets of consumer goods.
Ignoring Zim diamonds competition at own peril
20 february 2012
Recent reports that diamond mining giants such as De Beers, ALROSA and Rio Tinto were losing out in India to stones from Zimbabwe’s Marange made an interesting reading.
Frost&Sullivan: Russia is presenting great economic strength which is likely to support the Russian diamond market
13 february 2012
Frost&Sullivan, which provides customer-dependent market research and analysis, said that the Russian diamond market is nearing its maturity stage and is likely to follow the GDP growth of 4 percent.
January market report
06 february 2012
It seems that the state of uncertainty has pretty exhausted diamond marketeers. Judging by the reports published after the first DTC sight, the diamond community did not expect the usual opening address and careful assessment of market environment from Louise Prior, the head of sightholder services and communications for DTC, but rather a plain answer to the question “Are you going to change your trade policy and how will you set prices?”
Cautious prognosis for diamond market after ‘good’ holiday season
30 january 2012
Rockwell Diamonds said recently that diamond jewellery sales in the United States were better during the last Christmas season than the year before. This, it said, is expected to assist in the liquidation of inventory with the resultant cash flow improvement rolling over into the January and February rough diamond purchasing period.
Dividends from ALROSA
23 january 2012
In the near future, ALROSA intends to increase its free float by placing its shares on the market. The dividend rate is an important attractiveness factor for investors, so now when making decisions about dividend payments the company, willing or not, will have to focus both on the needs of minority shareholders and dividend yield standards generally accepted in business.
