Sarine’s David Block: Diamond Industry at Standstill Until Chinese Demand Returns

David Block is CEO of Israel’s Sarine Technologies and has served in the position since 2012. In this exclusive interview for Rough and Polished, Block gives his opinion on the leading issues affecting today’s diamond trade.

11 september 2024

Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge: Demand for considerable-sized diamonds stronger than ever

The African Diamond Council (ADC) chairperson Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge told Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa in an exclusive interview that although overall global diamond prices have been somewhat soft, the demand for considerable-sized diamonds...

02 september 2024

Amplats sees prospects as a standalone company

Anglo has revealed its plans to demerge Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), which has operations in South Africa and Zimbabwe, to optimise shareholder value. Rough&Polished contacted Amplats to comment on this and other issues but was referred...

19 august 2024

WFDB President Yoram Dvash Remains Confident Despite Global Diamond Challenges

Yoram Dvash is President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) having been elected in 2020. He found time in his busy schedule to speak to Rough&Polished about the state of the diamond industry around the world and some of the major...

12 august 2024

Lyudmila Vysotskaya: Amber is a mystical stone, a living substance

Lyudmila Vysotskaya is a Kaliningrad-based amber artist and designer, expert, chairwoman of the Amber Academy and member of the Creative Union of Artists in Decorative and Applied Arts. This summer, visitors could admire the art works by Lyudmila Vysotskaya...

30 july 2024

Expert suggests installing seismic stations for NSR

19 august 2024

Seismic stations on the coast of Yakutia, as well as on the Novosibirsk Islands and the De Long Islands, should be installed to ensure the safety of navigation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This proposal was made by Sergey Neustroev, First Deputy Minister for the Development of the Arctic and the Affairs of the Peoples of the North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

The Arctic is seismically active, especially its eastern part. In particular, seismic phenomena have been recorded in the area of Bennett Island in the East Siberian Sea.

Galina Antonovskaya, head of the Seismology Laboratory at the Federal Research Center for Integrated Arctic Studies of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained to TASS that there is just a handful of seismic stations in the Russian Arctic, most of them are located in the western sector.

"The Arctic is practically not covered by seismic networks. And if we compare it with our Western colleagues, they have hundreds of stations there, and we have an order of magnitude less," Antonovskaya noted. In the eastern part of the Russian Arctic, there are stations only in Tiksi and Chukotka.

According to the scientist, seismic stations, in addition to earthquakes, record events related to glaciers and ice, which is important for the safety of navigation.

Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished