A turkey is much more than just a bird. At De Beers, the turkey has become a symbol – since time immemorial, employees in London and in Maidenhead always received a turkey around Christmas as a tasty reminder of their employers’ appreciation. Read More...

The untimely passing of Mahendra Mafatlal “Madhu” Mehta deeply shocked his family, friends and business associates. With his father and brothers, Madhu built one of the diamond world’s greatest empires. Read More...

I wonder how many Idiamantaires are acquainted with Prof. Dina Siegel, a cultural anthropologist and criminologist. You may not know her – but she might have secretly taped your conversations with third parties in routine business transactions. Read More...

At the beginning of this week, we were almost convinced that a new huge bubble was in the making in Indian goods. But not all the facts fully add up to reach an unequivocal conclusion.   Read More...

Some say that the current economic crisis is the first major recession where the diamond industry doesn’t have a strong omnipotent cartel managing the road to recovery. Have producers and governments act differently during this recession than during a previous cartel-era crisis? Read More...

The economics of our industry are sometimes mind-boggling. Rough diamond prices are rising again, but consumers have yet to return. Bankers warn that they don’t see “new” money and most commercial activity is inter-trade. Read More...

Is De Beers on a collision course with Botswana or are we on the eve of a dramatic, agreed upon, redrawing of the current legal marketing arrangements, in the world’s largest diamond producing country? The answer isn’t clear. Read More...

The agreement signed between UBS and the U.S. Government, in which the Swiss bank will release to the government the names of 4,450 account holders suspected of tax evasion, triggered a quiet but very persistent positive spillover effect for the diamond business. Read More...

So long as the Dutch government-owned ABN AMRO Bank remains the world’s largest diamond financing institution, the transformation process at its diamond group is as crucial to the industry. Read More...

A calculation on the back of an envelope will show that every year the worldwide diamond industry loses approximately $100-$135 million because of the practice of gem labs only giving a diamond's weight to the second decimal point. Read More...