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...

17 february 2025

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

Arctic researchers discover four new species of mollusks

15 january 2024

Scientists of the Federal Research Center for Integrated Arctic Studies of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have identified two genera and discovered four new species of freshwater mollusks of the Sphaeriinae subfamily.

Spheriines, small bivalve mollusks widely distributed in freshwater bodies of different continents, play an important role in ecosystems: they perform biofiltration of water and serve as a food source for fish and birds.

Spheriines are considered one of the few groups of bivalves that have adapted to the conditions of the Arctic, gazeta.ru writes with reference to the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.

Due to the short Arctic summer lasting just over two months, the mollusks begin breeding process later and finish it earlier.

Until now, the taxonomy of these mollusks has been controversial. The study allowed to resolve the contradictions. As a result of a large-scale revision of scientific data, four new species have been described. They were found in the Kolyma River basin, in the reservoirs of the Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan and Morocco.

Zoologists have also found out that the group of spheriines formed about 126 million years ago on the territory of modern China, then began to settle.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished