Sarine’s David Block: Diamond Industry at Standstill Until Chinese Demand Returns

David Block is CEO of Israel’s Sarine Technologies and has served in the position since 2012. In this exclusive interview for Rough and Polished, Block gives his opinion on the leading issues affecting today’s diamond trade.

Today

Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge: Demand for considerable-sized diamonds stronger than ever

The African Diamond Council (ADC) chairperson Dr M'zée Fula Ngenge told Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa in an exclusive interview that although overall global diamond prices have been somewhat soft, the demand for considerable-sized diamonds...

02 september 2024

Amplats sees prospects as a standalone company

Anglo has revealed its plans to demerge Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), which has operations in South Africa and Zimbabwe, to optimise shareholder value. Rough&Polished contacted Amplats to comment on this and other issues but was referred...

19 august 2024

WFDB President Yoram Dvash Remains Confident Despite Global Diamond Challenges

Yoram Dvash is President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) having been elected in 2020. He found time in his busy schedule to speak to Rough&Polished about the state of the diamond industry around the world and some of the major...

12 august 2024

Lyudmila Vysotskaya: Amber is a mystical stone, a living substance

Lyudmila Vysotskaya is a Kaliningrad-based amber artist and designer, expert, chairwoman of the Amber Academy and member of the Creative Union of Artists in Decorative and Applied Arts. This summer, visitors could admire the art works by Lyudmila Vysotskaya...

30 july 2024

10 weather satellites to be launched in Russia by the end of 2025

25 april 2024

The planned launch of 10 meteorological satellites by the end of 2025 will make it possible to achieve independence from foreign space data, said Igor Shumakov, the head of Roshydromet, according to TASS.

"If the plan to launch our spacecraft in the federal space program is fulfilled by 2025, we will be virtually independent of foreign satellite data," Shumakov said.

According to him, Roshydromet is the customer or co-customer of all Earth remote sensing satellites created within the framework of the federal space program. The Agency has its own space environmental monitoring system.

As of 2023, a group of 15 satellites were stationed in orbit in the interests of solving the tasks of Roshydromet, including two Arctic-M series satellites launched into a highly elliptical orbit for the first time in the world.

"Over the past five years, six meteorological satellites have been launched, three of them in 2023. This is more than in any of the previous years. It should be noted that this year our group will continue to add more satellites: the Meteor-M hydrometeorological satellite and the Resurs-P high-resolution device have already been put into orbit," Shumakov said.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished