Diamonds

More trouble has come to Zimbabwe's Mugabe family with first lady Grace Mugabe figuring as one of the biggest beneficiaries from the diamonds from the controversial Chiadzwa fields after it emerged she is a shareholder in Mbada Diamonds.

With the diamond flow becoming tight in global markets, Surat's diamond polishing units are now awaiting roughs from Zimbabwe, which recently got a reprieve from the KP scheme, which allowed the country to sell a portion of its diamond stocks.

The recent decision of KP scheme to partially allow Zimbabwe to sell its diamonds has come as a respite for Surat, the biggest diamond processing centre in the world. In fact, now diamantaires in Surat can officially import rough diamonds from the troubled Marange diamond mines in Zimbabwe with the Kimberley Process allowing supervised exports of diamonds from Zimbabwe.

As the world's largest diamond congress is meeting in Russia starting Monday, July 12, 2010 the Russian government has set the ball rolling with the announcement of the government buying out $1 billion worth of diamonds from the country's Alrosa, a monopoly firm that was plagued with global economic crisis.

Zimbabwe has once again urged the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to allow the country to export its diamonds to world market. Zimbabwe finance minister tendai Biti said the KP should allow Zimbabwe to immediately start selling diamonds from Chiadzwa as the delay is affecting ordinary Zimbabweans.

Till now Zimbabwe was the main country which has been drawing flak from across the world for the blood diamonds from its now infamous Marange diamond fields. But now, super model Naomi Campbell is in the eye of a storm for accepting blood diamonds as gift.

It was a long-held belief that cotunnite, the highest-known pressure phase of the mineral zirconia, was mechanically hard enough to be used for industrial abrasives, and therefore could possibly replace expensive diamond. It turns out, that is not the case.

Gold's high prices have come as a godsend for diamond jewellery sector as more and more people are now opting for the sparklers.

A long-running controversy over Zimbabwe's allegedly illegal diamond trade, which human rights groups say is run by the army to enrich the power elite, took another twist with a watchdog official saying Harare can resume exports suspended in 2009.

A four member delegation from Alrosa Co. Ltd, headed by vice president Mr. Yury Okoyomov is on an exploratory trip to India from 21st February to 26th February, 2010. The team has met up with the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) headed by chairman Mr. Vasant Mehta on 22nd February, 2010.

The woman who inspired the iconic Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has died, a charity said Monday.

A Chicago company said on Friday it had obtained some of the hair that Michael Jackson burned in a 1984 Pepsi commercial and planned to create a limited edition of diamonds from it.

Since Michael Jackson's sudden death on June 25, the rumor mill over details of his bizarre personal life has ground away nearly non-stop, and on Friday, one company said it was turning his hair into diamonds. That one is true.

Tiny diamonds sprinkled across North America suggest a swarm of comets hit the Earth around 13,000 years ago, kicking up enough disruption to send the planet into a cold spell and drive mammoths and other creatures into extinction, scientists reported on Friday.

Diamonds produced in a laboratory - cheaper and in a myriad of colours - should not be seen as a threat by industry giant De Beers since they will largely fill a separate niche, a group promoting the gems said.

People are so obsessed with diamonds in Sierra Leone, they overlook the value and abundance of this gold, Aiah Lebbie, chief of Nimikkor chiefdom in Sierra Leone's eastern province said.

Resource Company BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it foresees great potential for a large discovery of diamonds in Angola as well as forming a partnership with the government.