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...
Today
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
New Marketing Campaigns Have a Familiar Look
23 september 2024
For members of the diamond and jewelry businesses who have been in the trade for 20 years or more, the recent announcements by various players in the trade about marketing campaigns may sound familiar. Ever since De Beers decided, more than a decade ago, that it was no longer willing to almost single handedly finance generic global diamond marketing campaigns, the trade has found it almost impossible to unify around a single project.
Gold breaks all records and regains its traditional safe haven status
16 september 2024
The opinion that gold had lost its traditional safe haven status was very popular two years ago. This year’s reality has shown that gold performed well in the long run, despite a number of unusual market moves amid the rising inflation in 2022.
DMCC advocates traceability to combat modern diamond industry challenges
09 september 2024
The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) today has published its report on the important steps that the diamond industry as a whole can take in the fields of traceability and technology to tackle challenges its stakeholders are currently facing. Following DMCC’s Provenance, Traceability and Technology Forum held during the KP Intersessional meeting at Almas Tower in Dubai in May 2024, the new report focuses on a number of recommendations for the wider industry.
ALROSA’s report comes amid symptoms of luxury segment consumption crisis
02 september 2024
On August 12, ALROSA published its IFRS financial statements for H1 2024. Despite its abridged state which raised questions, it still sheds light on the state of the largest diamond miner and adds to understanding of the state of the diamond market.
Unscrupulous actions can have unintended consequences
19 august 2024
One of the most common recurring themes in the diamond industry, unfortunately, is the issue of unscrupulous diamond and jewelry merchants seeking to pass off synthetic diamonds as natural stones and creating fake jewelry. The aim is obviously to make a big profit by defrauding other members of the industry with a clear lack of care for the consequences further upstream where they create distrust among consumers who are likely to be deterred from buying jewelry again.
Comparative analysis or marketing ploy?
14 august 2024
The Heliyon journal published an article titled Comparative analysis: CapEx in diamond mining versus diamond growing, based on open data sources and experimental results. In July 2024, one of the authors of the publication, Professor Vladislav Zhdanov of the Higher School of Economics, gave an interview to Rough&Polished and explained the principal provisions of this unordinary work in easy-to-understand terms.
ALROSA joins the gold rush
06 august 2024
In the pre-crisis year of 2007, there were a lot of events in the corporate life in Russia. But even against this backdrop, the deal to acquire a 25 percent plus one share stake in Polyus Gold by a consortium led by ALROSA could stand out. The state-owned diamond monopoly negotiated the acquisition of the country’s largest gold mining company with a clear potential to further increase its share to a majority stake and merge. The merged company looked like an obvious contender for Sukhoi Log, the Europe’s largest gold deposit.
Huge U.S. Jewelry Market Remains Solid, But More Marketing Critical
29 july 2024
The latest figures this month showing a decline in the number of active U.S. jewelry companies provides a snapshot of what is happening in the critical American market. Although only 226 businesses closed in the second quarter of this year that ended on June 30, according to the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT), it was nonetheless a rise of 30% from the year earlier period.
Is copper market on timeout before a new breakthrough?
22 july 2024
Copper market is a favorite topic of industry analysts, and the latest example of BHP’s takeover bid for Anglo American shows that copper assets stand out in mining corporations’ portfolios and are the subject of keen interest from competitors. The closure of a giant mine in Panama in late 2023, as well as lower forecasts for the copper production by major miners and sanctions on Russian-origin metals have created persistent expectations of copper supply disruptions.
The last turn of Larisa Popugayeva’s ‘pyrope path’
16 july 2024
This year, the Russian diamond industry will celebrate a glorious anniversary, 70 years since the discovery of the first kimberlite pipe in the USSR called Zarnitsa (Summer Lightning). The kimberlite pipe was discovered on August 21, 1954 by Leningrad-based geologist Larisa Popugayeva, and this discovery had a huge effect on the USSR diamond industry and the world diamond market as a whole.
