It's the calm before the storm. The US has imposed lukewarm sanctions on Alrosa, directing its citizens not to buy on memo - from a company that says it doesn't sell on memo. And not to engage directly with its CEO - not that most of them are likely to have personal dealings with him. That doesn't sound like a huge imposition, but things could get a lot more serious, and very quickly. Read More...

OPINION by Erez Jacob Rivlin and Hubert de Munck.  Senior veteran diamantaires remember the speculative diamond market of the end of the 70s. Starting in 1976, the better diamond qualities rose sharply, then doubled again and again. The price bubble kept ... Read More...

It already holds the record as the largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction. And there's a chance that the De Beers Cullinan Blue will become the world's most expensive blue diamond ever when it goes under the hammer. Sotheby's Hong Kong announced on Wednesday that it will be sold in April in a special single-lot live auction... Read More...

The Koh-i-Nor isn't the largest or most valuable diamond in the world. But it's possibly the most famous and the most controversial, and it's in the news again this week. More words have been written about the alluvial diamond believed to come from Golconda, India, than any other gem.... Read More...

It was the American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz who coined the term "butterfly effect" in 1972. He used it to explain how something very small - a distant butterfly flapping its wings - could have a disproportionate impact on something very big... Read More...

Sotheby's say it's "a treasure from interstellar space". The Enigma is certainly an exceptional gem, certified by the GIA as the largest fancy black natural colour diamond in the world, polished with 55 facets and weighing 555.55 carats. But is the diamond... Read More...

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but they can also be a criminal's. There are so many different ways to exploit rough or polished gems, at so many points along the pipeline. But are banks and financial institutions using an over-sized hammer to crack a medium-sized... Read More...

A diamond may no longer be forever, a US court has ruled. An engagement ring is a "conditional gift", which means that if the bride-to-be gets cold feet, she must hand it back. The appeals court ruling in a widely-reported case, that of... Read More...

A new year, a new way of doing business. Alrosa introduced changes on 1 January which will, it says, provide buyers with more of what they want, and less of what they don't. Rough allocations for ... Read More...

Last November marked the end of an era for Australia's diamond mining industry. The Argyle mine ceased operations after 37 years. It had dominated the market for pink diamonds, producing 90 per cent of global output, but operators... Read More...