Exclusive
Diamond market crash is Africa’s opportunity, not its crisis – M'zée Fula Ngenge
Global natural diamond supply is forecast to fall below 95 million carats this year, the lowest since 1987. For Dr. M'zée Fula Ngenge, chairperson of the African Diamond Council (ADC), this is not a death knell but a clarion call. In an exclusive...
12 october 2026
Tracr passes 5 million rough diamonds milestone as De Beers expands provenance push
De Beers Group's blockchain-enabled traceability platform Tracr reached a significant milestone in 2025, with more than 5 million rough diamonds individually scanned and registered, up from 2.8 million cumulative registrations reported in 2024. The...
28 september 2026
South African diamonds head to Hong Kong: SDT partners with BRINKS for JGW 2026
South Africa’s State Diamond Trader (SDT) has confirmed the country's participation in Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong (JGW) 2026 through a partnership with BRINKS. SDT marketing and communication manager Tsholofelo Gopolang Tselapedi...
14 september 2026
David Benderly: PermaScribe seeks to put trust mark on diamond table, not just girdle
In this interview with Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa, PhotoScribe Technologies president and chief executive David Benderly explains how PermaScribe differs technically from conventional laser inscription, its potential to strengthen security, and...
31 august 2026
The great reset: Paul Zimnisky on supply catharsis, De Beers' bargain and the case for natural diamonds
The natural diamond industry is in the throes of its most profound reset in a generation. Supply is plunging to its lowest level since 1987 and De Beers—once valued at over $9 billion—is reportedly being sold for as little as $1 billion.
Lab-grown...
10 august 2026
ICMM to focus on achieving ‘zero harm’ a reality
Describing the report as ‘uncomfortable reading’, Rohitesh (Ro) Dhawan, CEO of ICMM says: “Despite the industry’s focus on operational, cultural and leadership transformation that has reduced fatalities in recent years, we have still not achieved our goal of zero harm. In 2021, 43 people from ICMM company members lost their lives at work. Any year with even a single fatality is unacceptable. This means, as an industry, we must and will continue to work to improve our safety performance so that every single worker returns home safely.”
“ICMM began collating and publishing company members’ safety data in 2012 with the aim of encouraging information and knowledge-sharing, and catalyzing learning across the industry. And as an industry, we can draw strength from how far we have come, but we will remain deeply uncomfortable until zero harm is actually achieved. ICMM’s new three-year strategy is focused on ambitious collective action. In health and safety, we will work together to explore the root causes of why harm continues to occur and hunt for the next step change to make zero harm a reality”, he added.
Also, Dhawan assures that ICMM’S past reveals that in the face of trying circumstances, the Council can summon its collective will and find ways to work together to create a safer future. “I am confident in the unwavering commitment of every ICMM company and association member to do the same in this instance and work together to achieve a true step-change in our collective safety performance,” he claims.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
