Helga Pombal: Angola's Stardiam finds solution to the threat posed by lab-grown diamonds

Stardiam manager of production Helga Pombal told Rough&Polished's Mathew Nyaungwa on the sidelines of the Angola International Diamond Conference that lab-grown diamonds are creating a parallel market for more accessible stones, combined with lower...

11 november 2024

Ellah Muchemwa: ADPA to launch Africa's first diamond mining standard next year

The African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), which is based in Luanda, Angola, and represents the interests of mainly African diamond producers and those with the potential to produce diamonds, will next year launch the Sustainable Development...

04 november 2024

Dmitry Fedorov: I want our jewelry to be displayed at a museum in the future

Dmitry Fedorov is the founder of the eponymous jewelry house. His main focus is the creation of Orthodox-inspired premium luxury jewelry of high artistic merit. He told Rough&Polished about his journey in the jewelry industry, about choosing the ‘Orthodox...

28 october 2024

Responsible business practices ‘no longer optional’, says WDC President Feriel Zerouki

The president of the World Diamond Council takes time out of her busy schedule to tell Rough&Polished readers about the critical work of the WDC. Zerouki, the first female present of the body, which includes all the important industry organizations among...

14 october 2024

James Campbell: Botswana Diamonds optimistic as it enters uncharted territory of using AI for mineral exploration

London-listed Botswana Diamonds has expressed optimism about the company’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to scan the exploration database in Botswana to look for new mineralised deposits. Company managing director James Campbell told Rough...

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Russia's Gokhran to match diamond classification with international standards

25 january 2018
The Gokhran of Russia plans to match its classification of polished diamonds with international standards, said the head of the Gokhran Andrei Yurin on the sidelines of the conference Classification of Diamonds: Ways to Improve.
"The Russian classification is very detailed and differs from international practice. In this regard, we asked our colleagues to bring with them a group of experts who are engaged in the international classification in order to streamline this classification in Russia. And most likely, Russia will move towards convergence of the classification with the international market, so that buyers who are in different countries of the world are more familiar with accompanying documents for diamonds. It's quite a painstaking job, it will take two years to do it," - Yurin said.
Also, Gokhran does not plan to purchase diamonds for the state fund in 2018.
"All the plans of Gokhran were completed in 2017. Everything that was planned was purchased, one of the (precious) metals that we were going to buy was mostly gold, almost nothing was acquired as far as stones are concerned. We sold the planned volume of goods, too," Yurin added.
Last week ALROSA reported that in 2017 it sold diamonds worth $2.89 million to Gokhran.