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16 Oct
In a program intended to protect consumers and help ensure public trust in gems and jewellery, GIA India organised more than 20 education seminars for various associations during August and September across India.
GIA India said that the initiative attracted more than 1,200 members of the gem and jewellery trade in the states of Tripura, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra. The seminars covered topics including natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, diamond treatments, coloured gemstones and pearls.
GIA Managing Director of India and the Middle East Nirupa Bhatt said, “As a public-benefit institute, GIA works to create awareness and educate the trade through our education seminars. Working closely with regional associations, GIA India has...
16 Oct
A new traceability project to document the journey of rubies from mine to market has been piloted by Ressigeac Gems with the assistance of the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF, according to coloured gemstone miner Gemfields.
Ressigeac Gems purchased one of the finest lots of rough rubies at Gemfields’ latest auction in Singapore this June. Each stone was characterised and documented step-by-step from the rough state to the cut state until the stones were resubmitted to SSEF for final examination and issuance of a gemstone report for each individual cut ruby.
“Legitimacy, transparency and integrity are values at the heart of the Gemfields business. Coloured gemstones, as a wonderful material for many jewellers, should be sourced with these values in mind. End consumers want to know where...
12 Oct
11 Oct
Delegates to the 2018 Congress of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, set to open in Bogotá, Colombia, in five days' time, will discuss among other things, the diamond, coloured stones, pearl, coral, precious metals and gemmological Blue Books — the organisation’s comprehensive guidelines on each specific sector.
The 2017 CIBJO Congress in Bangkok ratified amendments to its diamond Blue Book that specified that CIBJO, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) would all use a harmonised nomenclature to describe diamonds. Early this year, Russia’s Ministry of Finance signed a memorandum agreeing to harmonise its diamond nomenclature with CIBJO, the WFDB and IDMA.
The agendas and related documentation for the various...
10 Oct
ALROSA announced that it had sold $338.7 million in rough diamonds over September this year, bringing the nine-month January-September total to $3.59 billion. The company also sold $7.1 million in polished last September, aggregating $74.1 million in polished diamond sales in the nine-month period to September.
ALROSA said that its aggregate sales of rough and polished for the nine-month period had grown 9 percent in a year-on-year comparison with the same period last year.
"September sales growth against last year’s numbers is due partially to the low base effect of the last year, as sales of +10.8 and +2 carat rough diamonds increased. At the same time, there is a further slowdown in buying activity of inexpensive stones, traditional for the holiday season during the Diwali...
10 Oct
ALROSA has engaged the Boston Consulting Group to enable it to reduce its extraction-to-market time lag and reduce its work-in-process inventories by more than $100 million.
As part of the initiative to boost operational efficiency and improve business processes, ALROSA intends to streamline the distribution of rough diamond flows among its business units. The project will generate proposals on how to improve the distribution of rough diamond flows inside the company, with pilot projects launched until the year-end to reduce the cycle time and a dispatch control system rolled out in the sales unit.
ALROSA says these measures will enable it to decrease its work-in-progress inventories by over $100 million by the end of this year and increase the value of ready-for-sale goods.
As at the...
09 Oct
09 Oct
ALROSA announced it had recovered a 28.59-carat fancy intense yellow diamond (pictured) at its Ebelyakh placer deposit in July. The deposit is mined by ALROSA’s subsidiary JSC Almazy Anabara. The company said it is the largest yellow diamond it has recovered this year.
Evgeny Agureev, ALROSA Executive Committee member and Director of its sales arm, the United Selling Organisation (USO), observed, ”The extracted stone is our new unique discovery. Fancy colours are very rare in nature. This stone is also unique, because nature seemed to have prepared it for cutting and in advance gave it a pear-like shape. The USO has yet to study the diamond and decide whether to auction it as a rough or to cut it into a polished stone. However, even now, one can say this is a worthy specimen for...
09 Oct
The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) held its first ever India silver jewellery Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) between October 3 and 5 in New Delhi. The event was inaugurated by Indian Government Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Senthilnathan S.
The meet saw 27 leading Indian silver jewellery manufacturers displaying a wide range of product to 49 buyers from 16 countries. The buyers ranged from silver jewellery wholesalers, through retailers, traders and chain stores from Algeria, Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Jordan, UAE, UK, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Oman, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
GJEPC Chairman Pramod Agrawal said, “There is a growing demand for silver jewellery or alternative metal globally. India can capitalise on this as it has the...
08 Oct
05 Oct
Russian Consul-General Andrei Zhiltsov and Director of ALROSA's United Selling Organisation Evgeny Agureev are slated to formally open the second edition of the Bharat Diamond Week (BDW), the polished diamond fair organised by the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), which begins on Monday.
"We are delighted that Consul General Zhiltsov and USO Director Agureev have graciously agreed to join us for the ceremonial opening of the diamond show," said BDB Vice-President Mehul Shah, who heads the BDW project. "ALROSA is an extremely important supplier of rough goods to the Indian diamond industry, which is by far the world's largest diamond manufacturing centre."
BDB President Anoop Mehta said, "It is not by chance that the second edition of the Bharat Diamond Week is to be opened by these important...
05 Oct
The Diamond Producers Association (DPA) launched its integrated ‘Real is Rare. Real is A Diamond’ marketing campaign in Telugu, a language spoken by people in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The campaign focuses on celebrating the precious moments which mark the journey of a relationship between a couple.
The DPA said that a key insight was arrived at following comprehensive research — while couples tend to celebrate anniversaries and birthdays as milestones, there are other unrecognised moments of bonding & intimacy that form the foundation of their relationship.
These moments are unique and rare to each couple and deserve to be acknowledged. Inspired by the real stories uncovered during research, the campaign offers a compelling narrative by recreating...
03 Oct
ALROSA reported that its ‘special size’ (over 10.8 carats) rough diamond auction in Hong Kong, that ran through the recently concluded Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, realised $10.7 million.
ALROSA said 136 gem-quality diamonds with a total weight of 2,234 carats, including 25 fancy yellow stones, weighing 440 carats in total, were sold. They were bid for by 54 companies from Hong Kong, mainland China, Belgium, Israel and India.
The company has so far held three auctions this year in Hong Kong, selling over 5,500 carats and aggregating $35 million in sales.
In other news, ALROSA’s shareholders approved a half-yearly dividend payout of RUB 43.7 billion ($667.6 million), equivalent to 70 percent of the free cash flow. This is more than RUB 5 billion ($76.4 million) higher than the...
03 Oct
Coloured gemstone producer Gemfields has launched a global advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of responsible sourcing in the coloured gemstone industry and promoting Zambian emeralds and Mozambican rubies.
The campaign focusses on three key values — transparency, integrity and legitimacy — and highlights the breadth of consideration involved in responsibly supplying coloured gemstones to global markets.
Called ‘Every Piece Unique’, the campaign film is set in a contemporary art gallery, closing for the night, when the sculptures, including a faceted emerald and ruby female figure, come to life through movement and dance. Each character moves with unique style, unveiling its distinctive role in the Gemfields ecosphere.
“We wanted to bring to life the many stories behind...
01 Oct
28 Sep
While saying that it welcomed the Indian government’s increase in import duty on polished diamonds and coloured gemstones, along with lab-grown diamonds to 7.5 percent and that on jewellery to 20 percent as a means of tackling the country’s current account deficit (CAD), the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said however, that the measure would impact exports and trade.
GJEPC Chairman Pramod Agarwal said in a press release, “India is a global leader in diamond processing. It is not just a hub for processing rough, but also caters to varied forms of re-processing of diamonds and diamond jewellery. A substantial amount of cut and polished diamonds and coloured gemstones sold to clientele world over, in the form of either loose or set in jewellery, is imported for re-...
28 Sep
27 Sep
The Indian government has raised the duty on the import on polished diamonds and coloured gemstones from 5 to 7.5 percent, that on lab-grown diamonds by the same amount and on jewellery and components of jewellery from 15 to 20 percent. A similar import duty hike has been imposed on precious metal parts for gold- and silversmiths.
The duty increases on a total of 19 items including refrigerators, compressors for air conditioners and aviation turbine fuel, are part of the government’s efforts to reduce the country’s current account deficit (CAD), currently estimated at 2.8 percent of GDP.
The government has said that a large trade deficit and a rupee that has weakened against the US dollar have put a great deal of pressure on the CAD and the measures are intended to curb any further...