DiamondBuzz
Augmont expands SPOT Gold Trading platform with lab grown diamond integration for global markets
Augmont, India’s largest gold trading platform announced that it has added Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD) to its existing online SPOT trading platform for precious metals catering to more than 5,000 jewellers across the country.
The enhanced SPOT 2.0 platform brings Augmont’s 17 years of precious metals trading expertise to the growing LGD sector. This addition represents an evolution of diamond trading infrastructure, particularly as India maintains its position as the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing destination.
The platform enhancement introduces transparent pricing mechanisms and streamlined procurement processes for the LGD market inspiring confidence among key stakeholders. This strategic move is set to streamline the procurement for jewellers while establishing a transparent and efficient pricing mechanism for the rapidly growing LGD market in India.

Ketan Kothari, Director of Augmont Group, said, “Augmont has firmly established itself as India’s go-to destination for buying and selling gold. Building on this strong foundation, we are proud to have our own lab-grown diamond (LGD) platform on Augmont SPOT, addressing the surging demand in this rapidly growing industry. The platform will enable market pricing and delivery of these diamonds globally including USA, Europe, Gulf and East Asia’’
Aarav Bafna, Product Head (LGD), Augmont, said, “With the extended version of SPOT, we plan to set a benchmark for LGD pricing. The current LGD pricing model, based solely on discounts relative to mined diamonds, is fundamentally flawed and irrational. Augmont is here to transform that narrative. Just as we revolutionized gold trading and price discovery in India, we are now ready to redefine and reimagine the LGD market.”
SPOT offers a comprehensive and unified trading experience, enabling jewellers to source all their manufacturing requirements—including gold, silver, platinum, lab-grown diamonds, precious metal alloys, precious stones, and other essential materials—through a single integrated online platform. It also features real-time price discovery powered by advanced algorithms and market mechanisms, ensuring transparent and fair pricing. Quality assurance is a priority, with certification and verification processes for all listed diamonds. Built upon Augmont’s proven 17-year-old trading infrastructure, SPOT ensures seamless integration for a reliable and efficient trading experience.
The platform addresses the growing demand for lab-grown diamonds, which have gained significant market share due to their sustainable nature and competitive pricing. SPOT is expected to handle substantial trading volumes, reflecting India’s dominant position in the global LGD polishing industry.
As per the Commerce Ministry’s data, India polishes almost 98% of all lab-grown diamonds in the world in 2022.
As per the EY report, the demand for Lab-Grown Diamonds is rising across the world, and its global market size is growing at 8.64% CAGR to touch $39.3 billion by 2028. And the Indian lab-grown diamond jewellery market, which was valued at around $300 million in 2023, is set to increase to $1.2 billion by 2033.
DiamondBuzz
De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation
Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.
De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.
Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.
Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.
On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.
Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.
De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.
This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.
In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.
Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.
Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”
De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.
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