Another major industry player has made a financial donation to the Diamond Development Initiative, the organization dedicated to improving the lives of artisanal diamond miners around the world.

The Diamond Empowerment Fund will present “Diamonds for Good: What Your Customers Want to Know and What You Need to Know,” a panel discussion that will be held at the JCK Las Vegas show.

The Diamond Empowerment Fund hosted a “Raffle for Education” at the W hotel in South Beach, Miami, during the American Gem Society’s Conclave last month, benefitting the organization’s educational endeavors in African diamond-producing nations.

On Thursday, De Beers announced that 22 Canadian jewelers will begin carrying Forevermark in the next several weeks, marking the brand’s first foray into Canada.

Two Antwerp-based industry players have created a new online auction site for polished diamonds called the Diamond Dealers Automated Exchange.

De Beers’ synthetic diamond arm Element Six is constructing a £20 million ($32.3 million) research and development facility near Oxford in the United Kingdom, the company announced this week.

Gemesis, the lab-grown diamond company that launched a consumer-facing website in March, is seeking to spark interest via a Facebook contest.

The Accredited Gemologists Association will hold its conference “Looking Through the Looking Glass--The Future of Diamonds” in Las Vegas on May 31, offering a host of expert speakers and panelists who will discuss various topics pertaining to diamonds.

Grading laboratory HRD Antwerp announced Friday that it has passed the results of its internal audit on to judicial authorities there and has terminated its relationship with the three companies involved in the alleged misconduct that led to the firing of four diamond graders last month.

India’s polished diamond exports declined from $28.22 billion to $23.33 billion, contributing to a marginal decline in gem and jewelry exports for fiscal year 2011-2012, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council announced at a press conference here.

Production at De Beers’ diamond mines fell 16 percent year-over-year in the first quarter as the company continued to focus on mine maintenance and waste stripping, Anglo American reported Thursday.

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre will launch its first Antwerp Diamond Academy here on May 6, with Virgin Group owner Sir Richard Branson slated as a special guest for the event.

Forevermark has launched FMX, an online trading platform for buying and selling Forevermark diamonds available to the brand’s diamantaires, manufacturers and jewelers.

Special agents and detectives from international law enforcement agencies descended on the Gemological Institute of America’s main campus in March for two weeks of training designed to help them solve jewelry crimes.

The American Gem Society Laboratories has signed an agreement to promote its name and diamond grading standards through Worldmart*E, an online jewelry platform based in Panyu, China.

Nicky Oppenheimer, outgoing chairman of the De Beers Group, is slated to be recognized at the upcoming World Diamond Council gala dinner for his work in eradicating “conflict” diamonds worldwide.

Storied leveraged buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a leading candidate to purchase BHP Billiton's stake in Canada's Ekati mine, may seek to combine that diamond production asset with those recently put up for sale by Rio Tinto, according to The Sunday Times.

The nonprofit Diamond Development Initiative is slated to give a talk at American Gem Society Conclave on how the organization is working to improve conditions related to artisanal diamond mining, which accounts for 15 percent of the supply in the marketplace.

The Moscow Diamond Bourse (MDB) and India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council held a first-of-its-kind summit between Indian diamond manufacturers and Russian buyers here April 3-5.

Rio Tinto reports that the first rough diamonds from its Bunder Diamond Project here have been handed over to selected Indian diamantaires for cutting and polishing.

HRD Antwerp, the Belgian grading laboratory, announced on Friday that there were “potential inconsistencies” related to the grading of diamonds within its laboratory.

Verichannel LLC recently announced a partnership with a company that supports a Chinese-language, business-to-business online diamond and jewelry trading platform, providing its diamond suppliers with online access to the Chinese market.

De Beers’ Diamond Trading Company has announced the start of the 2012-2015 Supplier of Choice contract, as of March 31, and published its new sightholder list.

The Natural Color Diamond Association announced that it will work to restructure and re-launch its operations with an energized approach to the promotion of natural color diamonds.

Grading laboratory Gemological Science International has opened another lab, this one in the diamond trading center of Antwerp.