FirstGold™ takes Gold, Platinum and Silver bullion accumulation and storage to a new level of security and convenience.
The FirstGold platform gives the smart investor the ultimate way to save in real bullion which is 100% Gold, Platinum and Silver stored in your physical account.
FirstGold is simple to use, safe and secure, and is your own physical asset.
Located in the heart of Sydney, FirstGold is a reputable and trusted player in the bullion industry, with a commitment to safeguarding and growing consumers wealth through bullion.
FirstGold makes accumulating physical investment bullion easy and safe. At the core of our business lies a dedication to customer service, and we take great pride in our multiple service awards, which are a testament to our commitment.
At FirstGold, we offer the most flexible and cost-effective means to save, providing a platform that adapts to your unique needs and preferences.
Alrosa’s revenue rose in 2023 as the Russian diamond miner continued to sell despite sanctions.
Sales increased 9% to RUB 322.57 billion ($3.55 billion) for the year, the company reported Wednesday. However, net profit fell 15% to RUB 85.18 billion ($939.3 million).
Alrosa and its diamonds have been the subject of sanctions by the US and other Western countries since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in February 2022. Major markets including India and China still permit imports of Russian diamonds. On March 1, the US will introduce stricter measures banning the import of 1-carat and larger stones of Russian origin, even if they went through manufacturing in a third country.
The miner’s announcement was its second full results statement since March 2022. On both occasions, it withheld information on the destination of its sales, which usually shows Belgium, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India to be the largest buyers.
Last week, De Beers reported a 36% drop in 2023 revenue for a total of $4.27 billion, with the diamond unit recording a net impairment of $1.56 billion, reflecting a weaker demand outlook.
Russia’s sanctions-hit diamond producer Alrosa, opens new tab on Wednesday reported 2023 net profit of $925 million, down 15.2% from the previous year, Turnover was up 9.2% at 322.6 billion roubles.
Group of Seven leaders agreed in December to ban non-industrial diamonds from Russia by January, and Russian diamonds sold by third countries from March.
The European Union added Alrosa, Russia’s biggest diamond producer, to its sanctions list in January as part of punitive measures it has imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
As Guy Borenstein gears up for Stuller’s Bench Jeweler Workshop in March, there’s one hot topic that will be addressed for the fifth consecutive year: synthetic diamonds.
There’s no shortage of available equipment to detect lab-grown diamonds. According to the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), there are about 40 instruments on the market that aim to discover natural versus synthetic diamonds.
“Five years ago, I asked attendees how many were screening for lab-grown diamonds [LGDs] and one hand went up,” says the director of gemstone procurement for the Lafayette, Louisiana-based manufacturer. That number has grown as the years passed, but “the majority are still not checking,” he adds.
Considering the recent number of undisclosed synthetics sent to labs, retailers should be more vigilant. In the last two months, four labs — comprising one in Italy and three, including the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), with US outposts — have reported incidents of synthetic diamonds submitted for grading under the guise of being natural. The labs, with their multitude of testing instruments and scientific savvy, have the manpower and resources to uncover the truth, but what about retailers, small manufacturers, and dealers? Other than sending every diamond purchased either over the counter or from a jewelry maker to a lab, what can the rest of industry do to guard against unknowing purchases of synthetic diamonds? Screen, baby, screen.
Marc Altman of B&E Jewelers in Southampton, Pennsylvania., started selling synthetics only last year, but has encountered them in newly manufactured goods sold to him as natural and in the engagement rings of unknowing clients. In the case of the new jewelry, he suspects it was an honest error.
“It was one ring,” he says. “It was a big order, and my assumption was that they also made jewelry with LGDs.”
Thanks to his GIA ID100 screening tool, he was able to spot-check trays of new finished jewelry. In the case of individual client rings, he’ll use a polariscope and the ID100 to determine if a diamond is natural or synthetic. In the last three weeks, he’s taken in two rings for resizing that were set with lab-grown and not the natural diamonds that clients thought they had. These examples are why screening goods on intake is critical and reveals deficiencies in disclosure by others at the time of sale. These are lawsuits in the making.
“If I didn’t [screen], my reputation would be at risk,” he says.
Fraud or flub?
Recent high-profile lab incidents aside — like the 6-carat synthetic laser-inscribed as a natural the International Gemological Institute (IGI) examined, or the pink, yellow and brown lab-grown diamonds posing as natural that Gem Science Laboratory (GSI) received — not every facility sees the spike in undisclosed synthetics as deliberate by fraudsters.
As a percentage of all diamonds examined, the number submitted as natural that turn out to be lab-grown is miniscule, says IGI CEO Tehmasp Printer.
“Ten years ago, 95% of parcels were contaminated,” he continues. “Today that number is reduced to half a percent. Initially, some did try to push LGDs as naturals and then labs learned how to ID the material. Now, there are mistakes and errors, but most are not intentional. No manufacturers are polishing LGDs and naturals in the same space; it’s done separately. The problems occur when parcels are given out for memo, and then there is a little switch here and there by mistake.”
Other incidents aren’t as clear. A recent GSI discovery involved mounted brown diamonds with linear graining and polished surfaces “to try to pass it as natural,” maintains Debbie Azar, cofounder and president of GSI. “While initial gemological observations would suggest they were likely natural, our advanced testing processes revealed they were CVD [chemical vapor deposition lab-grown diamonds] almost immediately by looking at their optical defects.”
No matter the intention behind the incidents, GIA takes each one — and steps to avoid them — seriously. For example, nearly every synthetic diamond that comes in for a report is inscribed as such. It also recently unveiled a same-day service for report confirmation of GIA-graded diamonds with or without markings. The service is offered to combat fraudulent inscriptions and for now is free.
“We should all be doing everything possible to ensure consumer trust,” says Pritesh Patel, GIA senior vice president and chief operating officer. Patel is responsible for lab operations. “One is not more vulnerable than another in the trade; everybody should be vigilant,” he cautions.
One of the toughest tasks in effectively screening jewelry today is the large quantity of small stones. The labs can handle it, but it’s tedious.
“Our biggest challenge is testing items encrusted with micro-pavé — jewelry set with 0.005-carat and smaller diamonds,” says Angelo Palmieri, president of GCAL by Sarine. “The challenge predominantly revolves around exercising patience.”
Then there are the hidden halos of diamonds; only visible diamonds can be easily checked on finished jewelry, so the trade must remember to flip pieces on their sides for inspection.
“We see as many naturals in LGD-set jewelry as we see LGDs in natural diamond jewelry,” adds Palmieri. “We see this happen with everybody, from high-end brands to sightholders. We’re not seeing 50% wrong — we see cases where one is natural or LGD. It doesn’t look intentional; it looks like it’s hard to keep track of the melee.”
Azar, too, is familiar with this wearisome process.
“Pieces with smaller diamonds and melee can be extremely time-consuming and the work is intricate,” she says. “We screen thousands of diamonds each day and we are detecting undisclosed laboratory-grown diamonds every day. They are usually in mounted goods where the mounting obscures full observation of the diamond.”
The solution? Enhanced quality controls such as constant and repeated testing when diamonds are loose and once they’re set. “Most companies don’t want to put in the hard work (and patience) that comes with thorough and complete testing,” observes Palmieri.
IGI screening lab. (IGI)Tools and techniques
Like Altman, other retailers can use a microscope, polariscope and GIA’s ID100 in store — they’re compact and not too cost prohibitive.
Labs have myriad methods, including custom machines and proprietary research, to uncover the truth. There are also common methods used by all labs, like “Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy” and “basic gemological testing,” among others, notes Palmieri.
GIA even has a facility in New Jersey devoted solely to the study of lab-grown diamonds to stay ahead of their developments. “GIA spends a tremendous amount on research,” notes Patel.
GIA Gem Instruments Polariscope. (GIA)
Lab consensus is that one instrument isn’t enough. Multiple tools and experienced operators are necessary to reveal undisclosed synthetics.
“Each instrument has its own advantages and limitations,” says Palmieri. “No one machine can give you all the answers.”
Azar urges the trade to adopt a deductive process for distinguishing between naturals and synthetics. For example, does it have garnet crystals? Then it is “definitively natural,” she says. But if a diamond has no inclusions or is type IIa, send it to a lab for testing. For mounted goods, “all bets are off because of the complexities,” she adds.
Dror Yehuda, president of Yehuda Diamond Company — formerly a maker of clarity-enhanced diamonds — shifted to manufacturing diamond detectors around 2015. That’s the year, he maintains, that lab-grown diamonds came to market with gusto. “The vast majority of my customers stopped carrying my Yehuda diamonds and moved to LGDs,” he reveals.
As a result, Yehuda built the first Sherlock Holmes detector, which is in its fourth generation. Three models now exist to accommodate a variety of needs and budgets.
To date, he has sold over 15,000 detectors worldwide.
“The second generation was tested by project Assure and was the only detector other than [De Beers’] SynthDetect that detected 100% of the LGDs,” says Yehuda.
The Assure Directory from the NDC is a resource for anyone trying to determine what instruments to purchase. Assure provides results of independent testing of a “wide range of diamond-verification instruments,” according to Samantha Sibley, technical educator at De Beers Group Ignite in the UK, which spearheads De Beers’ corporate approach to innovation.
Assure tests instruments for “diamond accuracy, referral rates, speed, and natural false positive rates [i.e., does the instrument pass any synthetic diamonds as natural?],” she continues. “The latter is the most crucial measure, and all De Beers verification instruments have a 0% false positive rate from both Assure 1.0 [2019] and Assure 2.0 [2022].”
Big Sherlock. (Yehuda Diamond Company)Model behavior
Manufacturing house Stuller takes extreme precautions to safeguard against undisclosed synthetics. The firm has 62 pieces of screening equipment and 40 associates to run them. It even has an in-house GIA lab for melee analysis (Stuller staffers aren’t even allowed inside).
Starting at a quarter of a point, Stuller tests every diamond individually, screening more than 5 million units a year. Each stone is tested by at least two different technologies so one “can compensate for the weakness of another,” adds Borenstein. “In a year, 50,000 units out of 5 million go to the lab for further tests.”
The onus is on Stuller to test because of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations.
“Every player throughout the supply chain should test,” he urges. “We are still catching undisclosed stones on a daily basis, so just imagine how many of those are filtering into the market in an area with no screening at all.”
GIA iD100 instrument.(GIA)
Jay Seiler of Jay Seiler Jewelers in Duluth, Minnesota, is a risk taker. He has a Presidium tester to weed out cubic zirconia and moissanite when he buys gold, but no other equipment in-house to test diamonds. Why? He’s a private jeweler now after years of operating a big store. His clients are largely older, known to him, bought diamonds before the advent of lab-grown, and 90% of his work is custom. Still, what about the new diamonds he buys? Therein lies the risk.
By the time someone faces an undisclosed synthetic, however, it’s likely too late. “You won’t be able to defend yourself in court,” says Borenstein.
“Disclosure is not as explicit as it should be, and that will be a huge challenge for retailers in a few years,” says Palmieri.
GIA says it has expanded its new verification service – aimed at combating “cloned diamond” fraud – to all its labs.
The Report Confirmation Service was launched last month in New York to identify lab growns being submitted for regrading as natural diamonds.
GIA says the service is now available at all locations. It will accept walk-in and courier submissions, will turn around loose diamonds in as little as 15 minutes, and will, initially, make no charge.
The service is available for GIA-graded diamonds with and without inscriptions. An original GIA cert is helpful but not essential.
An increasing number of lab growns are being fraudulently submitted for re-grading. They are cut to match the specifications of natural diamonds that have already been graded and inscribed with either with a GIA number (genuine or fake).
“Combatting this fraud is vital to protecting the public and ensuring their confidence in gems and jewelry – this is GIA’s mission,” said GIA president and CEO Susan Jacques.
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions against nearly 300 Russian entities in its latest round, including a company specializing in the export of rough and polished diamonds.
The new series of restrictions the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has applied marks the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and is also in response to the death of opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny, the Treasury said last week.
OFAC has targeted Almazyuvelirexport, Russia’s state-owned exporter of rough and polished diamonds and precious metals. The company was designated for “operating, or having operated, in the metals and mining sector of the Russian Federation economy,” it added.
Other companies that were banned included financial institutions, the defense industry, companies “providing backdoor support for Russia’s war machine,” and those connected to Navalny’s imprisonment.
Lucara Diamond Corp. has announced the recovery of a 320-carat, 111-carat, and two +50-carat stones from its 100% owned Karowe Diamond Mine located in Botswana.
These diamonds were recovered from the direct milling of EM/PK(S) kimberlite ore from the South Lobe during a recent production run that saw additional recoveries of numerous, smaller +10.8 carat diamonds of high value.
The 320-carat is a gem-quality, top light brown diamond, while the 111-carat diamond is described as a Type IIa white stone of high quality. The two +50-carat stones add to these recent recoveries and are also Type IIa white diamonds. These recoveries add to the collection of significant diamonds recovered at Karowe and further solidifies Lucara’s reputation as a leader in the recovery of large, high-quality diamonds.
The recoveries from the EM/PK(S) unit highlight the continued success of Lucara’s mining operations at the Karowe Diamond Mine and reinforce the development of the underground mine which will target >95% EM/PK(S) ore during the first three years of underground production. The company’s adoption of advanced diamond recovery technology has enabled the continued identification and retrieval of these extraordinary diamonds and strong resource performance.
William Lamb, President and CEO of Lucara Diamond Corp., commented on the recent discoveries, stating:
“These diamond recoveries from the EM/PK(S) domain of the South Lobe further validate the quality and potential of the Karowe Diamond Mine. We are thrilled with the consistent success we continue to achieve in uncovering large, high-value diamonds, reaffirming Lucara’s position as a leading producer of large high-quality gem diamonds. Our team’s dedication to innovation and operational excellence continues to drive our success, and we look forward to delivering further value to our stakeholders through these extraordinary discoveries.”
Sotheby’s is set to offer over 180 iconic pieces of jewelry belonging to a single owner, featuring items such as Van Cleef & Arpels’ famous Zip necklace, a Cartier Panthère and a Bulgari Serpenti.
The event, called From the Vault: Exceptional Signed Jewels, will take place on March 7 during the company’s New York Luxury sales, it said Tuesday. The auction house curated the collection with a special focus on iconic motifs, it added.
Prices for the pieces, all signed by well-known design houses, range from $3,000 to $3 million. The top item is a matching necklace and earrings set by Asprey, comprising 50 graduated round, fancy-vivid-yellow diamonds and one round, fancy-intense-yellow diamond weighing a total of 55.26 carats, accented with white diamonds. It is estimated to bring in between $2 million and $3 million.
Here are some of the other pieces that will be offered at the auction:
This Harry Winston necklace was designed by François Tavernier as a line of round diamonds bordered by alternating pear- and marquise-shaped diamonds. The piece, which can be detached into several sections, has a presale range of $1.2 million to $1.8 million.A Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet set with baguette, tapered baguette, square-cut and round diamonds weighing a total of 27.54 carats, and 47.63 carats of Burmese, Kashmir and Ceylon sapphires, is expected to fetch $1 million to $1.5 million at the auction.Sotheby’s will sell this cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut, 41.02-carat, fancy-intense-yellow diamond ring for up to $1.2 million.A Van Cleef & Arpels Bals de Légende necklace bearing cabochon emeralds and round, baguette, pear, marquise, square and oval diamonds is estimated to fetch $500,000 to $700,000.This Zip necklace — composed of herringbone links bordered by heart motifs and accented by round diamonds — can be converted into a bracelet. The Van Cleef & Arpels piece, which comes with matching tassel ear clips, has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.A Bulgari Serpenti necklace set with round diamonds and pear-shaped diamond eyes is set to go for $300,000 to $500,000.A Cartier diamond, emerald and onyx Panthère cuff bracelet will also go up for sale. It carries a price tag of $100,000 to $150,000.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has launched a new laboratory in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC).
The location opened on February 19, the GIA said Tuesday. The lab will provide services only for clients operating in Dubai’s free trade zones and will be unable to accept submissions from other areas in the emirate, the GIA explained. However, in the near future the location will be able to accept intake from additional countries.
“The establishment of the GIA DMCC laboratory…adds significant value not only for our free-zone members but also for the wider industry, particularly when it comes to speeding up cycle times,” said Ahmed bin Sulayem, executive chairman and CEO of the DMCC.
The new Dubai lab will grade diamonds ranging in color from D to Z and weighing up to 3.99 carats, the GIA added.
Lucara Diamond has revived a gem sales agreement with polishing and trading company HB Antwerp, it said on Monday, five months after severing ties with the Belgian business.
Canadian miner Lucara said it will supply HB Antwerp with rough diamonds of 10.8 carats and above for 10 years from last December.
Lucara had terminated its relationship with HB Antwerp last September because of what it said was “a material breach of financial commitments”.
HB Antwerp declined to comment on the matter at the time and did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Monday.
Botswana, where Lucara mines diamonds at its Karowe project, has been reassessing plans to acquire 24% of HB Antwerp.
The two companies’ first diamond sales agreement was struck in 2020 and extended for 10 years in 2022.
Lucara said the purchase price for rough stones in its revised deal would be based on mutual agreement of the estimated value of polished diamonds, with a further payment based on actual achieved polished sales.
The pricing mechanism is expected to deliver regular cash flow, Lucara said.
“This partnership reflects our commitment to ensuring stability and sustainability in our operations,” said Lucara chief executive William Lamb.
Gem Diamonds Limited (LSE: GEMD) is pleased to announce the recovery of a high quality 113 carat white Type II diamond, recovered at the Letšeng mine in Lesotho on 17 February 2024.
A piece of white rock next to a magnifying glass Description automatically generated
Together with the 295 carat high quality Type II white diamond recovered on 8 January 2024 and a 139 carat low quality Boart diamond recovered on 17 January 2024, the 113 carat is the third greater than 100 carat diamond recovered to date this year.
Human-made diamonds come with an appealing claim: Manufacturers say the stones are produced ethically using renewable energy. But many of the products do not meet that claim or their producers do not confirm the electricity sources they use. And, laboratory diamonds require a lot of electricity to produce.
In the United States, lab-grown diamond sales increased 16 percent in 2023 from 2022, says Edahn Golan, an industry expert. The stones cost much less than natural diamonds.
Bario Neal is a jewelry store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It uses lab diamonds. All of the stones are either made with renewable energy or neutral use of energy through the carbon credit system. Credits pay for activities like planting trees, which capture carbon.
Social media posts show Millennials and Generation Zs proudly explaining the purchase of their lab-grown diamonds for sustainability and ethical reasons. But the sustainability of production is questionable. A high number of manufacturers are not transparent, or open, about their operations.
Many of the manufacturers are in India, where about 75 percent of electricity comes from burning coal. The companies use words like “sustainable” and “environmentally-friendly” on their websites. But they do not release reports on the environmental effects of their operations.
Cupid Diamonds, for example, says on its website that it produces diamonds in “an environmentally friendly manner.” But it did not answer questions about the sustainability of its operations.
Solar energy is quickly expanding in India and there are some companies, such as Greenlab Diamonds, that use renewables in their manufacturing processes.
China is the other major country producing laboratory diamonds. The largest makers did not return requests for comment. They also did not release details about their electricity source.
More than half of China’s electricity came from coal in 2023.
Paul Zimnisky is a diamond industry expert. He said few companies are honest about their supply chains and their use of renewable energy.
Zimnisky said a lot of companies claim to make an “environmentally-friendly product when they aren’t really doing anything that’s environmentally friendly.”
How it is made
Lab diamonds have been in production around seventy years. Producers treat carbon to high pressure and high temperature. The idea is to copy the natural conditions that form diamonds underground. But, nature spends at least one billion years to make a diamond. Lab diamonds are complete in a few weeks.
In the past, the stones were used mostly in industries like stone cutting, mining and dentistry tools.
Over time the laboratories, or foundries, have gotten better at making stones. Production costs have dropped as technology improves.
Companies now can manufacture as many stones as they want and choose their size and quality.
Diamonds, whether lab-grown or natural, are chemically identical and entirely made out of carbon. Experts can identify between the two using lasers to examine their atomic structures.
Marketing battle
The lab diamond is competing in the same market as natural stones. Worldwide, lab-grown diamonds are now 5 to 6 percent of that market. And, the public battle for customers has begun.
The natural diamond industry and some experts argue that lab-grown diamonds will not hold value over time.
Zimnisky predicts that natural diamonds will continue to sell in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for engagement rings.
And the human-made stone?
“Five to ten years into the future, I think there’s going to be very few customers that are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a lab diamond,” he said.
Page Neal said she co-founded Bario Neal in 2008 to “create jewelry of lasting value that would have a positive impact on people and the planet.”
She added: “We want to only work with materials that we feel like our clients would be proud to own.”
I’m Dan Novak.
Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.
Behind his small and grandfatherly stature is a man who’s not afraid to say anything, and usually does. Leibish Polnauer has been in the diamond industry for over 40 years and runs an extremely successful business. But if not for a crazy fluke and a bit of luck, that business wouldn’t exist.
Polnauer — affectionately known in the trade as simply “Leibish” — welcomed Rapaport’s editorial team to his office in Israel’s diamond bourse to talk about how he got his start, the market for colored diamonds, what he thinks of lab-grown, and how the industry has changed over the years. We also got a sneak peek at some of the jewelry pieces his company is currently working on.
The train ride epiphany Around 1980, after several years as a diamond polisher and the loss of his job at a factory that went out of business, Polnauer went to London to try to sell a parcel of diamonds. He didn’t manage to offload a single stone, but on the train, on the way back from his business meetings, he saw an advertisement in The Guardian for crown jeweler Garrard, featuring a pear-shaped, brown diamond. Using his abundance of “Israeli chutzpah,” he called the number and told them he had diamonds to sell. The managing director invited him to his office on Regent Street, where he told Polnauer he was making a tiara for a wedding and needed 106 pear-shaped diamonds in four weeks.
Despite his cheeky admission to our team that at the time he had never even heard of pear-shaped diamonds, Polnauer took on the challenge, flew to New York, and secured the stones needed for the piece. He brought them back to London, and Garrard, thrilled with the selection, cut him his first check for GBP 106,000, equivalent to about GBP 1 million ($1.3 million) today.
He used that experience to convince Graff to do business with him. At the time, the jewelry house worked with a sultan whose wife gifted every visitor to their palace with a diamond watch, and Graff was desperate for the pink and yellow diamonds needed to create 50 to 70 watches per year. And thus began Polnauer’s career in the colored-diamond business.
Changing with the times Throughout the years, Polnauer has watched his business grow from diamond sourcing and manufacturing to include in-house designers that create custom pieces for clients whom they usually never meet face-to-face, but who nevertheless aren’t afraid to drop massive sums of money for a beautiful, original Leibish creation.
One of the most important lessons Polnauer has learned during his time in the colored-diamond industry is that people shop first by color, then by price tag. He has broadened his business to include colored gemstones, because if someone wants a blue diamond but can’t afford it, a sapphire or tanzanite can often present a compelling and cheaper alternative.
Most of the firm’s clients are wealthy 30- to 60-year-olds who have a penchant for color, because, as Polnauer notes, “color is excitement.” They purchase multiple pieces to match their clothing. One client in Texas bought 13 rings in a two-year period because she loved color. Meanwhile, another client ordered a ring for his wife, who then decided she needed earrings to match. When those were ready, she wanted a necklace to complete the set. Polnauer was more than happy to comply, and in a four-day time span, he saw his bank account padded with an additional $500,000.
But working in the colored-diamond industry isn’t always easy. Recently, the company was tasked with sourcing dozens of matching yellow diamonds to be used for a watch created by Jacob & Co. That search took the company on a two-year, international hunt before they finally filled the commission.
Other changes over his more than four-decade career have also been difficult. He has sadly watched as the Israeli diamond-manufacturing sector has diminished in importance with India’s growth, and learned the meaning of providing added value to customers.
“People used to just want to buy a stone, but now they want to buy a product,” he says. “You have to have an internet business; you have to manufacture jewelry. You also have to really be on point with your presentation. When business was face-to-face, if you screwed someone, he would just walk away upset. Now, with the internet, he doesn’t walk away. If he doesn’t like what he gets, he sends it back, and he writes a bad report about you on Google, and you have to pay for the return shipment, so presentation is crucial.”
No lab-grown zone While many in the industry have welcomed the advent of lab-grown as a way to make money from clients who can’t always afford natural stones, Polnauer pulls no punches about his dislike of what he calls “fakes.”
He believes lab-grown to be detrimental to the natural-diamond industry, because the fall of synthetic prices “pulls down the price of real diamonds.”
He’s also not shy about making it known how damaging he thinks De Beers was with its marketing of lab-grown.
“De Beers made a tremendous self-destructive move by introducing a product which is undermining the basic product they sell,” he explains. “They cannibalized their own sales and did a tremendous disservice to the industry.”
However, Polnauer believes when it comes to lab-grown, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
“Lab-grown is stealing the story from natural diamonds,” he says. “But there is a saying: ‘When the music stops, the dancing stops,’ so hopefully everything will work out for the best.”
Staying optimistic His brazenness has seen Polnauer ride out many market ups and downs, the latest challenge being the Israel-Hamas war that started when the latter attacked the country on October 7. When asked if it’s affected his business, he says it has. While he notes that those who want to buy his products still will, and those who don’t never would have anyway, he believes the negative sentiment is “poison” for an industry based on “illusion and sentiment.”
Despite it all, he remains hopeful. When it comes to the future of the trade, he thinks “fancy-colored diamonds will flourish, gemstones will flourish and the jewelry market will flourish, because I’m an optimist, and if you put that positivity out there, everything will work out.”
The G7’s sanctions on Russian-mined polished diamonds, set to go into effect March 1, will have a six-month “sunrise period” to let the industry adjust to the new rules, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Botswana.
The ban will initially apply to polished diamonds at least one carat in weight, then expand in September to a half-carat and larger.
To verify the diamond’s provenance, the G7 will establish a new certification system based in Belgium. From March through August, G7 certification will be recommended; as of Sept. 1, it will be required.
G7 leaders committed in February, May and December 2023 to work collectively to reduce the revenue Russia uses to finance its illegal war against Ukraine that is derived from its diamond trade. The December G7 statement included the following language: We will introduce import restrictions on non-industrial diamonds, mined, processed, or produced in Russia, by January 1, 2024, followed by further phased restrictions on the import of Russian diamonds processed in third countries targeting March 1, 2024. To further the effectiveness of these measures, those G7 members who are major importers of rough diamonds will establish a robust traceability-based verification and certification mechanism for rough diamonds within the G7 by September 1, 2024, and we will continue to consult with partners, including producing and manufacturing countries on its design and implementation. We will continue consultations among G7 members and with other partners including producing countries as well as manufacturing countries for comprehensive controls for diamonds produced and processed in third countries on measures for traceability. Russia is the world’s largest rough diamond producer by volume and a significant global diamond exporter (> US $3.8 billion in exports in 2022). Its state-owned diamond mining conglomerate, Alrosa, accounts for 95% of Russian diamond production and is the largest diamond producer in the world by volume and second largest by value. Approach
A “direct ban” on Russian imports (direct flows of non-industrial diamond goods exported directly from Russia to a G7 country) is in place by all G7 members as of January 1, 2024. Specific measures and timelines are being developed to prevent indirect flows of non-industrial diamonds mined in or (for certain G7 partners) transited through Russia. This includes diamonds which are exported, processed and/or polished, in a third country and afterwards imported by a G7 member. To avoid unintended negative consequences and undue burden on other diamond industry stakeholders, the G7 is consulting key partners, including producing and manufacturing countries, as well as industry, on proposed controls and traceability measures for diamonds produced and processed in third countries. This consultation will continue with virtual meetings and possible future in-person visits. Through phased-in implementation, the indirect ban of Russian diamonds from G7 markets is expected to begin on March 1, 2024, with the banning of non-industrial natural diamonds mined in Russia sized 1.0 carat and larger. The G7 is targeting September 1, 2024 to extend the indirect ban to all non-industrial natural diamonds mined in Russia sized 0.5 carats and larger. To further the effectiveness of these measures, the December G7 statement indicates that those G7 members who are major importers of rough diamonds will establish a robust traceability-based verification and certification mechanism, detailed further below. This is envisaged to be fully operational by September 1, 2024. From March 1, 2024, it will be encouraged to identify all non-Russian diamonds above one carat entering a G7 country through this traceability mechanism. During a “sunrise period” from March 1, 2024 to August 31, 2024 documentary supply chain evidence will also be accepted by G7 countries, ahead of full operationalization of the traceability mechanism. Further details will be made available ahead of March 1st. From September 1, 2024, use of the traceability mechanism will be required for import into the G7, for diamonds sized 0.5 carats and larger. In this context, traceability will be expected to begin at the point of the first export, rather than the mine-site, though we encourage mine-level traceability where possible.
Options are being considered with respect to how to treat existing stocks of diamonds (grandfathered diamonds) and jewelry. A G7 technical working group, led by the European Commission, has been established to continue consultations and provide recommendations on the way forward. Governments and industry stakeholders are encouraged to engage with the technical group, with the understanding that ultimate decisions concerning the import requirements for G7 countries are taken consistent with respective national systems. Traceability mechanism detail
To ensure the provenance of diamonds entering G7 countries, a certified traceability mechanism known as “G7 Certification” will be recommended as of March 1, 2024, and required as of September 1, 2024. G7 Certification will verify and certify the provenance of rough diamonds from the point of first export through the use of a central import hub in Belgium during the period when the traceability mechanism system is tested. Thereafter, other credible options to the single node can be considered. Diamonds will then carry this verification throughout the supply chain, including through polishing, processing and manufacturing. This will enable stones to be checked at the point of import into the G7, ensuring their non-Russian provenance. G7 Certification will work by using and expanding on existing tracing technologies and controls. Diamond producers and manufacturers, throughout the supply chain, will need to incorporate validated traceability solutions into their operations. The G7 will determine and communicate standards that solution(s) will need to meet to qualify for G7 Certification. These third-party traceability solutions will then communicate key data points, including provenance information, with a secure, independent Distributed Ledger. To ensure the system is viable and credible, this information will be complemented by a physical check on rough diamonds, in Belgium. This check provides the G7 certificate, based on a high level of assurance, which will be carried onwards through the supply chain. This approach is needed to ensure that verification and certification is completed in a node where no Russian diamonds can be present given legal requirements that have been put in place. Belgium is developing the details for the way this system will function. The G7 will coordinate with Belgium during this phase to ensure the system is functional and presents minimal additional costs and delays. As noted, once this system is in place, tested, and perfected, the G7 will consider additional options and approaches beyond the central G7 import hub in Belgium. We expect to implement mitigating measures for beneficiation (polishing in the mining country). Export of the polished, beneficiated goods to the G7 countries may be direct if appropriate measures are put in place to ensure non-contamination of Russian diamonds. This system will provide traders, manufacturers, retailers and ultimately customers with the highest assurances of the non-Russian provenance of their diamonds in accordance with the G7 measures. Greater data intelligence and controls will also significantly enhance the overall levels of traceability in the diamond industry.
Sales slumped at Indian diamond manufacturer Asian Star in the final three months of the year amid a weak market and an oversupply in the midstream.
Revenue on a consolidated basis — which includes subsidiaries in the US, Dubai and Hong Kong — fell 13% year on year to INR 6.98 billion ($84.1 million) in the company’s third fiscal quarter, which ended December 31, it reported last week. Sales slid 24% compared to the previous quarter. Net profit grew 37% to INR 182.5 million ($2.2 million).
Those figures reflected weak demand for diamonds in the US and Chinese markets, which discouraged jewelers from restocking. In China, gold jewelry was more popular throughout the period than those set with diamonds, according to Hong Kong jewelry retailers Chow Tai Fook and Luk Fook.
Revenue from the company’s diamond segment dropped 17% to INR 5.7 billion ($68.7 million), while sales of gold jewelry increased 9% to INR 1.74 billion ($20.9 million).
Geologists from ETH Zurich and the University of Melbourne have established a link between diamond occurrence and the mineral olivine.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists explain that their method will simplify the detection of diamond deposits. The process relies on the chemical composition of kimberlites, which occur only on very old continental blocks that have remained geologically unchanged for billions of years, predominantly in Canada, South America, central and southern Africa, Australia and Siberia.
According to the study’s lead author, Andrea Giuliani, olivine is a mineral that makes up around half of kimberlite rock and consists of varying proportions of magnesium and iron. The more iron olivine contains, the less magnesium it has and vice versa.
“In rock samples where the olivine was very rich in iron, there were no diamonds or only very few,” Giuliani, who has been studying the formation and occurrence of the gemstones since 2015, said in a media statement. “We started to collect more samples and data, and we always got the same result.”
His investigations ultimately confirmed that olivine’s iron-to-magnesium ratio is directly related to the diamond content of the kimberlite. Giuliani and his team took these findings back to De Beers, who had provided them with the kimberlite samples. The company was interested and provided the scientific study with financial support and asked the researchers not to publish the results for the time being.
A slow, repetitive process In 2019, Giuliani moved from Melbourne to ETH Zurich and, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, began to look for explanations for the connection between olivine’s magnesium and iron content and the presence of diamonds.
With his new colleagues, he examined how the process of metasomatism, which takes place in the earth’s interior, affects diamonds. In metasomatism, hot liquids and melts attack the rock. The minerals present in the rock react with the substances dissolved in the fluids to form other minerals.
The geologists analyzed kimberlite samples that contained olivines with a high iron content—and hence no diamonds. They discovered that olivine becomes richer in iron in the places where melt penetrates the lithospheric mantle and changes the composition of mantle rocks significantly. And it is precisely in this layer, at a depth of around 150 kilometres, that diamonds are present.
The infiltration of the melt that makes olivine richer in iron destroys diamonds. If, on the other hand, no or only a small amount of melt from underlying layers penetrates the lithospheric mantle and thus no metasomatism takes place, the olivine contains more magnesium—and the diamonds are preserved.
“Our study shows that diamonds remain intact only when kimberlites entrain mantle fragments on their way up that haven’t extensively interacted with previous melt,” Giuliani said.
A key point is that kimberlites don’t normally reach the earth’s surface in one go. Rather, they begin to rise as a liquid mass, pick up fragments of the mantle on the way, cool down and then get stuck. In the next wave, more melt swells up from the depths, entrains components of the cooled mantle, rises higher, cools, and gets stuck. This process can happen multiple times.
“It’s a real stop-and-go process of melting, ascent and solidification. And that has a destructive effect on diamonds,” Giuliani noted. If, on the other hand, conditions prevail that allow kimberlites to rise directly to the surface, then this is ideal for the preservation of the gemstones.
De Beers is already using olivine analysis Olivine analysis is as reliable as previous prospecting methods, which are mainly based on the minerals clinopyroxene and garnet. However, the new method is easier and faster: it takes only a few analyses to get an idea of whether a given kimberlite field has diamonds or not.
“The great thing about this new method is not only that it’s simpler, but also that it finally allows us to understand why the previous methods worked,” Giuliani said. “De Beers is already using this new method.”
