A scanning electron microscope image of gemstone processing waste. Researchers are exploring ways to use gemstone processing waste in cement, reducing the environmental impacts of both industries.

You can soften your sweetie with diamonds, but to soften a diamond — the hardest material on Earth — takes some special chemistry. New research finds that a liquidlike layer of carbon at the interface ...

Lusaka — A classic example of Africa's poverty-amidst-plenty type of scenario is Zambia's failure to reap as much as US$600m annually from its gemstone industry. Zambia has rich reserves of gemstones, ...

London — Sixty Namibian small-scale gem miners have been trained in cutting and polishing gemstones under a Commonwealth Secretariat project to develop the country's small and cottage industries.

THE government has announced plans to invest in several gemstone lapidaries across major trading centres starting with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) as part of ambitions to ...

As he trims a red and yellow agate into an oval (called a cabochon) on a rock saw in his workshop in East Helena, Norman Smith’s hands show the power and character that result from 97 years of hard ...