The World Diamond Council has expressed its regret about the inconclusive end to the Kimberley Process Intersessional Meeting in Kinshasa last week. The main goal of the meeting was to finally resolve the issue of diamond exports from Zimbabwe. This did not happen.

The Responsible Jewellery Council on Friday released its third discussion papers on Chain-of Custody Certification for public comment. The CoC Certification system aims to enable businesses to demonstrate rigorous assurance for responsible, conflict-free supply chains for diamonds, gold and platinum metals.

High prices sway buyers towards goods otherwise they would not have widely considered, according to exhibitors at the June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair. Buyers opted for Very Good makes instead of Triple Excellent and parcels instead of Dossier i...

India has decried the failure of the Kimberley Process (KP) to formulate an agreement on the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields. A statement from Rajiv Jain, Chairman of India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), said, “The GJEPC is deeply disheartened by the disagreement in position between the consuming countries and African producers at the KP intersessional meeting at Kinshasa.

The Kimberley Process failed once again to reach a decision about the exports of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange region. The failure comes despite the willingness of key countries to reach a compromise.

The World Gold Council (WGC) produced a draft framework of standards designed to combat gold that enables, fuels or finances armed conflict. The standards, which were compiled together with the WDC’s member companies and leading gold refiners are designed to enable miners to produce a stream of newly-mined gold that is certified as “conflict free” on a global basis. Image of Ethiopian soldier is from Wikipedia.

The rough diamond sector is on fire. Traders are buying rough, willing to pay prices that they have not imagined possible just a few months ago. DTC's decision to raise prices not only matches market trends, it also completes a wider move on its part.

Tiffany & Co. today announced the appointment of Patrick F. McGuiness as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Outgoing CFO James N. Fernandez has been appointed to the newly-created role of chief operating officer.

The GIA (Gemological Institute of America) started accepting scholarship application for 2012, saying it is increasing the number of scholarships and doubling the number of international locations where On-Campus programs can be taken.

Jewelry and watch demand strengthened significantly in April in the U.S. market. New data indicates that total jewelry and watch sales rose by 11.2% over the same month a year ago, the largest gain since early 2010, when the industry was beginning to recover from the recession. Further, total jewelry and watch sales for the first three months of 2011 were revised upward, and show a much more consistent, positive trend. Preliminary jewelry sales in prior months had been somewhat choppy – in line with the choppy post-recession economic growth. However, newly revised data shows a pattern of solid monthly sales gains.

In a second online auction that ran June 14-21, the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) sold another 69 offices at its campus in the suburban Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai.

Alrosa’s first quarter of the fiscal year ended with a 5% decline in revenue, 29.6 billion rubles ($1.06 billion) despite rising rough diamond prices. Net profit for the period has however increased by 42% to 12.04 billion rubles ($431 million).