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...

Yesterday

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

7% more tourists visit Russian North and Arctic in 2024

04 march 2025

According to Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko, the tourist flow to the regions of the Russian North and the Arctic in 2024 increased by 7% compared to the same period of the previous year, to 3 million people.

"The number of tourist trips in Russia is steadily growing, including in the regions of the Russian North and the Arctic. In 2024 alone, they were visited by 3 million people - this is 7% more than in 2023. This applies to both Russians and guests from abroad," TASS quotes him as saying.

According to the Center for Strategic Research, among the northern regions, tourists most often visited the Vologda Region and Karelia - about 700 thousand trips, among the Arctic regions - the Murmansk Region (almost 500 thousand trips). The leaders in terms of popularity are Chukotka, where the number of tourists has more than doubled. There was also a significant increase in tourist trips in the Murmansk Region (+18.6% year-on-year), Krasnoyarsk Krai (+16.1%) and Yakutia (+10.6%). The number of foreign tourists in these regions has almost doubled (more than 75 thousand).

It is noted that further growth in tourist flow to the northern and Arctic regions is directly related to the development of modern tourism infrastructure.

Theodor Lisovoy, Managing Editor, Rough&Polished