DTC March sight estimated at $200 mil. with pickup in demand and prices for rough diamonds. De Beers cuts DRC exploration and significantly reduces London staff. ALROSA to sell $500 mil. in rough to 15 Antwerp firms in ’09. S&P suspends credit rating for ALROSA citing lack of disclosure of financial information. Hong Kong Jan./Feb. jewelry sales -3% with total retail -2% to $6.2 bil. Sotheby’s H…

De Beers held its biggest sale so far this year in August as diamond prices improved, RBC Capital Markets said, citing cutters and polishers it didn’t identify, Bloomberg reported. De Beers probably sold diamonds worth as much as $475 million at its seventh sale, analyst Des Kilalea said in a note to clients dated yesterday. That brings […]

Jewelry Biz-News quotes new data from LGI Network, a provider of marketing and sales information to luxury goods retailers, manufacturers and distributors, according to which luxury watch sales for July 2009 declined in comparison to the same month the previous year. According to the data, the overall market for fine watches declined by 20% on a […]

A BRITISH writer brought diamonds from Russia into the UK disguised in a box of chocolate creams to help fund communist propaganda after World War One, secret files show. Britain’s national security agency, the MI5, found that poet Francis Meynell had been channelling Russian funds into Britain to support his left-wing Daily Herald newspaper where he […]

The local price of rough tanzanite has recently plunged by nearly 50 percent to its lowest price in history, reported The Guardian. The per-gram uncut price has slipped from US$350 in June this year to US$180 in August. “This is the lowest price recorded in the history of tanzanite business,” gemstone broker Adam Leiyani was quoted […]

How far would you go for love? For a New Zealand local the answer was ‘very far’. After dropping his wedding ring to the bottom of Wellington Harbor, Aleki Taumoepeau, swore to his new bride that he would retrieve the sunken treasure… that was 16 months ago. The NIWA ecologist was scouring the harbor for invasive plant species last March when the ring slipped from his finger. He quickly threw an anchor overboard in an attempt to mark the loose whereabouts of the band. He swore to his wife of three months, Rachel, that he would find the token of their bliss. Describing the incident, Rachel said “It flew off into the air and everyone on the boat was looking at it and said it was like a scene from Lord of the Rings in slow motion.” Three months after the incident Aleki Taumoepeau was on the hunt for the ring, but the quest proved to be unsuccessful. Thankfully, Aleki was back on the scene recently for another attempt.

Chicago, IL – Northwestern University scientist Dean Ho recently discovered that using nanoscale diamonds can help heal wounds much faster. Dr. Ho and his team found that diamonds tend to attract insulin, best known for helping to regulate blood sugar. Insulin has also been found to speed up the healing process and prevent infections from growing at wound sites.

Diamond Giant Alrosa intends to sell $2 billion worth of diamonds in 2009, according to the new president of Russia’s biggest diamond producer, Fyodor Andryev. Andreyev, who replaced former Alrosa CEO Sergei Vybornov earlier this month, stated that the diamond company intends to fulfill its $2 billion plan for diamond sales in 2009, and that the […]