Archive

  • Zvi Yehuda, one of the founders of the Israeli diamond industry, owner of Yehuda Diamond Company and the inventor of numerous products for the diamond trade, died Saturday at 86. He is best known for his contributions to the Israeli diamond sector by introducing the concept of selling back diamond dust to cutters and polishers for use in grinding, at only 16 years of age. Later this innovation translated into industrial diamond dust sales internationally.

  • This last year in the diamond industry was not what one would consider "normal". Standard business patterns disappeared, business relationships changed drastically, and traders adapted to new regulations and ways of trading. Many of us think we have seen all the possible changes one can be faced with in a year, but I believe this is just the beginning of a paradigm shift in our industry, where quality will be replaced by a new kingmaker: origin. Heraclitus said it best: “There is nothing permanent except change”.

  • Debswana and Chinese tech giant Huawei at the Mobile World Congress Trade Show this week announced plans for the unveiling of "the world's first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project".
    The 5G network allows cutting-edge technologies like autonomous driving and enables more intelligent digital transformation of the mining industry in the years to come.

  • Chroma Diamonds founded by Alexander Appels and Jan De Henau is a relatively new company in the Antwerp diamond district, which specializes in colored diamonds. Stymied by the relatively “subjective process of color grading”, the 2 have set out on a mission to develop a device that provides more objective measurements for the grading of colored stones.

  • Jewelry trade publications such as JCK are reporting ever more instances of lab-grown diamonds bearing fraudulent inscriptions linked to grading reports for natural gems. “Given that the resale value of lab-grown diamonds is next to nothing,” said Soraya Cayen, owner of the Carmel, CA. jewelry salon, Cayen Collection, “retailers and consumers alike are understandably seeking confirmation that their diamond is a naturally mined one.”

  • Researchers from the German institutions Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), working jointly on a German Federal Ministry of Education and Research-funded project, have developed a quantum sensor that could better ensure safe removal of brain tumors without harming healthy tissue that surround it or areas such as the motor cortex and nerve pathways (see video).

  • De Beers’ innovation arm, Ignite, is launching a new diamond verification instrument which it promises can automatically screen large volumes of melee at speed, and identify rogue lab grown diamonds. According to De Beers, the device can be “easily operated in-house with no specialist expertise required,” further adding to the novelty of the device.

  • Israel-based diamond tech company Sarine Technologies and the Chinese state lab National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC) announced a partnership that includes Sarine’s light performance technology (“Sarine Light”) has resulted in a co-branded new industry standard for this grading feature on the Chinese market. NGTC will include the light performance grading in its grading reports.

  • The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) announced that it has started a winddown of its paper reports, starting with its most popular article, the Diamond Report, to go digital only in January next year. Graded diamonds will be returned with a QR code and the report can be consulted online or via GIA's new app. GIA is also launching an AI-based (Artificial Intelligence) service for diamonds graded in the new system, matching the inscribed diamonds with the digital grading report via a dedicated instrument, which will be available later this year at US$695, JCK News reports.

  • In recent weeks both the Arnault family and Tiffany & Co. have made headlines when it comes to the Metaverse. Days after his father, LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault signaled his wariness of the metaverse "bubble", Alexandre Arnault changed his profile picture on Twitter and Instagram to a Cryptopunk NFT (PFP). Alexandre, who is the executive VP of product and communications at Tiffany & Co., purchased an NFT titled Punk #3167 for ETH 160, roughly USD 415,000.