Diamonds news and archive

One of the world's largest rough diamonds has been unearthed in Botswana

A Canadian mining firm, Lucara Diamond, has unearthed a 2,492-carat rough diamond in Botswana, the second-largest diamond in history, potentially worth over 40 million dollars. The discovery highlights Botswana's significance in the global diamond industry, where it accounts for about 20 percent of world production. In a statement, William Lamb...

Business

EU imposes sanctions on Alrosa, Russia's largest diamond producer

In its twelfth series of sanctions, the European Union implemented restrictions on Alrosa, Russia's state-controlled diamond giant, and its CEO, as part of a wider ban on the importation of precious stones due to the conflict in Ukraine. The EU's move, initiated in December, aimed to block diamond imports from Russia as an additional measure to...

Business

EU contemplates sanctioning Russian diamonds

The European Commission is considering extending sanctions on Russia to include diamonds, responding to the country's invasion of Ukraine. Russia, a major global diamond supplier, contributes one-third to the market. Despite previous sanctions on various Russian commodities, diamonds have been exempt, partly due to Belgium's desire to protect...

Fashion

A rare blue diamond sold for over 40 million dollars at auction

A rare 17.61-carat pear-shaped blue diamond named Bleu Royal has set a record by selling for over 40 million dollars (32 million pounds) at a Christie's auction in Geneva. The diamond, part of a private collection for 50 years, achieved a sale price of 43.8 million dollars and is now considered the "largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue...

PeopleFeatured

De Beers Brands appoints new chief executive

De Beers Group, the leading diamond company, has appointed Sandrine Conseiller as chief executive officer of De Beers Brands, replacing Marc Jacheet, who is leaving De Beers. In a statement, De Beers said that Conseiller will oversee the development of De Beers’ Brands and investment in existing and new diamond markets. She will join the group’s...

Fashion Featured

Kevan Hall, Chatham and Pandora bring glitz of lab grown diamonds to NYFW

Entitled “Cote d’Azur,” inspired by a recent visit to see his brother who lives in Saint Tropez, Hall’s ss24 collection evoked a dreamy 1930s road trip in an early convertible from north west France’s Deauville resort, where figures like Claude Monet to Coco Chanel spent les vacances, to the infamous ocean front jet-set hub of the south coast,...

BusinessFeatured

The Diamond Lab secures funding to open debut flagship store in London

The Diamond Lab, the self-funded jewellery brand that started from a social experiment, has secured 450,000 pounds of funding to expand onto the British high street and educate customers about lab-grown diamonds. The London-based business, founded by Jamie Amelia Patel, secured its first round of private financing led by investor James Shulman...

Fashion Featured

CarbonVero tool launched to track energy consumption in the diamond industry

Diamond trading company Andre Messika Diamonds LTD has launched a new carbon emission and energy consumption tracking tool in partnership with diamond technological solutions provider Sarine Technology LTD. The CarbonVero tool can track and calculate the carbon emissions of individual natural diamonds from the mine to fully polished state,...

Business

Why Russian diamonds remain a conundrum for European sanctions

In a parallel to the fashion industry, the diamond trade faces challenges in tracing the origins of its precious stones, maintaining an opaque nature. Just as a garment produced in Romania may bear a "Made in France" label upon receiving final touches there, such as the addition of a care label or a button, diamonds follow a similar pattern....

Business

Jewellery brand Vashi acquired by Queensmith

Upmarket jewellery retailer Vashi, which fell into liquidation last month, has been acquired by London jeweller Queensmith’s parent company Hearts of London (Group) Ltd for an undisclosed sum. Vashi, founded by Vashi Dominguez, opened its first store on London's Piccadilly in 2016, and despite achieving sales of 100 million pounds in 2021 and...

Business

G7 countries pushing for deal to ban sales of Russian diamonds

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, a sore point of non-enforced sanctions has been the free flow of diamonds from Russia into Europe and the West. One of the reasons the sanctions have been bypassed is due to the revenue they bring to Antwerp and Belgian, arguably the diamond capital of the world, which relies heavily on Russian...

Fashion Featured

Myths and misconceptions about the diamond industry

There are two sides to every coin, or in the case of diamonds, four. As sales of man-made diamonds gathers momentum and its industry marketing them as the sustainable option for diamond jewellery, the UK’s Natural Diamond Council (NDC) is keen to bust some industry myths with alternative facts. First and foremost, not all laboratory-grown...