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...

07 october 2024

Artur Salyakayev: For me, happiness is freedom to make my ideas happen and create valuable products

Artur Salyakayev is an art entrepreneur, founder of the International Jewelry Academy (IJA) and the INCRUA jewelry company. He has initiated and developed successful projects in jewelry industry and services sector. He is also a leading expert...

30 september 2024

Paul Zimnisky: China key for sustained recovery in demand for natural diamonds, prices

The curtailing of upstream and midstream natural diamond production in the past months is starting to have an effect on prices, according to the New-York-based independent diamond and jewellery analyst and consultant, Paul Zimnisky. He told Rough & Polished’s...

23 september 2024

LBMA and WGC launch Gold Bar Integrity Programme

31 march 2022
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the World Gold Council (WGC) are collaborating to develop and implement an international system of gold bar integrity, chain of custody and provenance. Over time, this will help consumers, investors, and market participants to trust that their gold is genuine and has been responsibly and sustainably sourced, says a press release from WGC. 
To deliver this industry-wide and ground-breaking development for the market, LBMA and WGC have brought together representatives from the global gold supply chain to launch a pilot phase of the project.
This initial phase will see two distributed ledger companies (aXedras and Peer Ledger) demonstrate how their technology can best deliver a global ecosystem that will create an immutable record of a gold bar’s place of origin and chain of custody. This blockchain-backed ledger will register and track bars, capturing the provenance and full transaction history.
Over time, the plan is to encourage all major participants in the gold industry to adopt this technology, and add to the global ecosystem, so that all gold bars are registered and tracked across the entire supply journey from mine to vault, and ultimately to end consumers such as jewellery manufacturers. This will effectively digitise the global supply chain of gold bars.
The Gold Bar Integrity Programme supports greater industry alignment to ensure the future growth of the international gold market.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished