Tshepo Molusi: South Africa establishes dedicated diamond retail shop in China

T3 Diamonds founder Tshepo Molusi told Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa at the inaugural South Africa Diamond Show in Cape Town that the shop opened an opportunity for diamond manufacturers under the incubation to export their products to China. He...

Yesterday

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

Major Chinese copper smelters agree on production cuts amid raw supply shortage, low processing fees

22 march 2024

Biggest copper smelters in China have run into complications due to a shortage of raw material from miners and a decrease in copper processing fees which prompted talks of supply cuts.

According to Reuters, Chinese top producers Jiangxi Copper, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, Jinchuan Group and China Copper among others came to an agreement to jointly embark on production cuts at some loss-making plants.

The move comes in the wake of rapid expansion of copper processing capacity in China over the past year to take advantage of an expected surge in demand from green energy sectors. But several mine disruptions globally have led to a decrease in copper concentrate supply.

Meanwhile, the price of copper concentrate on the spot market has dropped to its lowest in more than a decade, leading to a decrease in processing fees paid to smelters. Spot copper treatment charges in China tumbled to $11.20 per metric ton, down 76% in just two months. It is the lowest level since 2013 when agencies began publishing this data.

China’s refined copper production, which accounts for about half of the world’s total, amounted to 2.215 million tons in the first two months of 2024, or about 37,000 tons a day, up 11% from a year ago.

Imports of copper concentrate to China amounted to 4.66 million tons for the first two months of the year, up 0.6% compared to the same period a year earlier, customs data showed.

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