Nosiphiwo Mzamo: South Africa’s State Diamond Trader to buy diamonds from other African countries

South Africa’s State Diamond Trader (SDT) is set to buy diamonds from other African countries starting with Botswana. SDT’s chief executive Nosiphiwo Mzamo told Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa at the country’s inaugural diamond show, which...

10 february 2025

Edahn Golan: Halo effect from lab-grown diamonds driving high demand for large, 2-carat natural stones in the U.S.

Edahn Golan, owner of the eponymous Edahn Golan Diamond Research and Data, told Rough & Polished's Mathew Nyaungwa in an exclusive interview that their research found a halo effect from lab-grown diamonds. He said the trend among lab-grown diamond...

27 january 2025

Paul Zimnisky: We will see a modest recovery in natural diamond demand and prices in 2025

According to Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond and jewellery analyst and consultant based in the New York metro area, the natural diamond industry will see a modest recovery in demand and prices this year. Zimnisky said a moderate recovery would...

13 january 2025

African Diamond Council makes traceability its top priority, wants KP to embrace Authentia.io

The African Diamond Council (ADC) has made traceability its foremost priority and has been contributing to a traceability solution called Authentia.io for the last three and a half years, which is now ready to globally satisfy the traceability...

16 december 2024

Gaetano Cavalieri: CIBJO leading the jewelry industry on critical issues

One of the gem and jewellery industry’s most well-known and respected personalities, Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri, has been the president of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), for the past 23 years. CIBJO is the oldest international organisation...

09 december 2024

Russia's Finance Ministry has no plans to provide state aid to ALROSA

11 january 2024

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is not yet considering the option to provide state aid to the diamond mining company ALROSA now sanctioned by EU in a form of purchasing rough and polished diamonds to the Gokhran state fund.

“There are no signs yet that [state aid] will be required. The company has a colossal resilience, it has a negative net debt, and with a large margin at that,” Interfax quotes Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev as saying.

At the same time, according to the deputy minister, the sanctions are “of course, an unpleasant story, we will see how it develops.”

Moiseev added that the company “was preparing [for sanctions], because there was no secret about it, our opponents had been talking about it for a long time.”

Gokhran operates within the budget limit for the purchase of precious metals and precious stones, which for 2024 is 51.5 billion rubles.

Theodor Lisovoy, Editor in Chief of the European bureau, Rough&Polished