IDEX Online

(IDEX Online) - Plans to turn the former Hatton Garden Safe Deposit vault in London into a heist-themed wine bar have provoked an angry backlash. Raiders broke into the underground vault over the Easter holiday weekend in 2015 after drilling through a 50cm-thick reinforced concrete wall and stole the contents of dozens of safe deposit boxes valued at about £14 million ($19 million).

(IDEX Online) - The Jewelers' Security Alliance (JSA) is warning retailers and suppliers of a scam in which callers impersonate employees or customers to have high-value jewelry shipped and then diverted to addresses controlled by criminals. JSA said it had received numerous recent reports of the scheme, which relies on detailed research into targeted companies.

(IDEX Online) - India's lab grown diamond sector is calling for an end to heavy discounting, as manufacturers struggle with shrinking margins. Industry leaders urged traders and brokers not to sell below agreed prices and to avoid undercutting, at a meeting of the Surat Lab Grown Diamond Association on September 7.

(IDEX Online) - Angola and Botswana are joining forces to strengthen the position of natural diamonds in international markets as they seek to counter growing competition from synthetic stones. The two African producers, who jointly account for almost 30% of the world's rough diamond production by volume, agreed to deepen cooperation in the diamond sector during a meeting between Angolan President Joao Lourenco and Botswana President Duma Boko in Luanda on September 8.

(IDEX Online) - CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, this week backed "synthetic" as the preferred term for diamonds produced through industrial processes. The move reverses its 2010 acceptance of "laboratory-grown diamond" and other similar terms, and could influence the terminology used in future by laboratories, retailers and other parts of the international jewelry industry.

(IDEX Online) - A pair of Burmese ruby and diamond earrings estimated at up to HKD 20 million (USD 2.6 million) will headline Sotheby's Hong Kong High Jewelry auction on September 17. The pear-shaped ruby earrings, weighing 5.20 and 5.08 carats, are set with rose-cut diamonds in 18-karat white gold. Sotheby's estimates the pair at HKD 11.5 million to HKD 20 million (USD 1.5 million to USD 2.6 million).

(IDEX Online) - London-based jeweler 77 Diamonds is investigating an alleged cyberattack after a threat actor claimed to have obtained a database containing hundreds of thousands of customer records. The Times reported on September 5 that the Metropolitan Police cybercrime unit was investigating a possible attack involving data on more than 409,000 customers. The newspaper said the hackers claimed to have obtained home addresses, names, email addresses and information about purchases.

(IDEX Online) - Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever opened HRD Antwerp's expanded Mumbai laboratory on September 4 during a two-day visit to India, highlighting the importance of the country's diamond industry to Belgium's trade relationship with India. The renovated laboratory in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex increases HRD Antwerp's stated diamond grading capacity by 30% to as many as 2,000 diamonds a day.

(IDEX Online) - The overall trend remained downward in September, with price decreases again outnumbering increases in both rounds and fancies. Rounds showed broader weakness, particularly among goods from 0.70-cts to 1.99-cts, while fancies were more mixed but also recorded significant downward movement in several larger categories. Activity was limited in a number of smaller size categories, but became more pronounced from 1.00-cts upwards.

(IDEX Online) - Gem Diamonds returned to profit in the first half of 2026 as higher rough diamond prices at its Letseng mine in Lesotho lifted revenue despite lower recovered carat volumes. The company reported attributable profit of $0.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $11.7 million in the first half of 2025. Revenue rose 32% to $59.7 million from $45.4 million, while underlying EBITDA improved to $8.6 million from negative $2.6 million.