News
Richemont, Signet in talks to join De Beers consortium – report
Luxury group Richemont and US retailer Signet Jewelers are in advanced talks to join the Global Diamond Consortium (GDC) bidding for De Beers, according to five people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports.
16 october 2026
Rio Tinto begins Q4 of 2026 with strong operational performance
The Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto has reported its third-quarter 2026 results, highlighting strong operational performance.
16 october 2026
Silver market deficit to widen in 2026 - report
In the latest World Silver Survey prepared by the Silver Institute and Metals Focus, the global silver market deficit is forecast to widen for the sixth consecutive year to 46.3 million ounces.
16 october 2026
Tharisa signs PGM offtake deal with Valterra Platinum, expands chrome collaboration
South Africa’s Tharisa has entered a binding arrangement for the sale of PGM concentrate to Rustenburg Platinum Mines, a subsidiary of Valterra Platinum, effective 1 January 2027.
16 october 2026
Norilsk hosts Nornickel’s 3rd Geology and Mine Surveying Forum
The 3rd Geology and Mine Surveying Forum, organized by Nornickel, has kicked off in Norilsk. The event continues to grow in scope, this year bringing together representatives from universities, equipment suppliers, design teams, mining companies, and...
16 october 2026
Diamond Industry Faces Headache as US Market Takes a Knock
02 june 2017
(businessoffashion.com) - In the diamond industry, the only place that really matters is the US, and the market is starting to look a little shaky. In a country where consumers buy almost half the world’s gems, Tiffany & Co. and Signet Jewelers Ltd. reported disappointing sales. That’s a blow to expectations that President Donald Trump’s pro-business policies would give consumers more money to spend on luxury items such as diamonds.
New GIA Program Tracks Diamonds Through the Pipeline
01 june 2017
(jckonline.com) - Gemological Institute of America is unveiling a new service that tracks the origin of select polished diamonds—and provides the retailer with a new way to tell a stone’s story. Matt Crimmin, GIA vice president of laboratory operations, admits that the Mine to Market (M2M) program does not represent a complete solution to determining a diamond’s provenance. “If you just gave me any polished diamond, I can’t tell you what mine it came from,” he says. But the program, two years in development, does represent a seeming step up from present-day methods of diamond tracking, as well as a potentially powerful new tool for selling gems.
A Rough Deal
01 june 2017
(polishedprices.com) - However skeptical, or some might say cynical, one becomes about large companies, sometimes I think they do rather get a bit of a rough deal. Of course, I am not referring to Gem Diamonds, which I suppose can hardly be called a large company, where its highly rewarded management having successfully kept their jobs and take home pay, having masterminded over a 90% reduction in its share price since it peaked about a decade ago. Amusingly, if you are at a loose end and go to the Gem Diamonds website it refers to itself as ‘a leading global producer of diamonds in Lesotho and Botswana’, which provides an interesting meaning to the word ‘global’, especially when its Botswana operation has been written off and closed down. Nor am I referring to the head honcho at the Pearson Group, one John Fallon, who was suitably rewarded with a 20% pay increase despite the company recording its biggest ever loss of £2.6 billion. In this instance, I am thinking of my old chums at De Beers.
Tanzanian women get training in lapidary, jewellery designing
31 may 2017
The Arusha Gem Fair (AGF) committee, in line with the mineral policy and Tanzania Development Vision 2025, started raising funds in 2012 to train local women in mineral value added skills such as lapidary, jewellery designing and manufacturing technology.
Recovering diamond market could result in more cutting and polishing factories
30 may 2017
(newera.com.na) - With diamond sales demand picking up in 2017, coupled with a relatively new sales and marketing agreement between the government and De Beers, the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) has not ruled out the possibility of more players entering the cutting a polishing arena. This is according to the NDTC, which currently sells rough stones to 11 local cutting and polishing factories, known as sightholders, who purchase the precious stones directly from the NDTC for local value addition. Since its inception, NDTC has paid out N$1,7 billion in dividends to both its shareholders (government and De Beers) and has paid about N$1,1 billion in taxes to government. According to senior manager for sales and marketing at NDTC Brent Esieb, the industry already witnessed string demand during the first quarter of 2017 and he foresees this trend continuing for the rest of the year. This follows a dramatic drop in sales in the second half of 2015.
