RAPAPORT... Rapaport is launching a new podcast dedicated to estate jewels as the sector gains popularity among consumers. Hosting the biweekly Jewelry Connoisseur Podcast is Editor in Chief Sonia Esther Soltani, with guests including estate dealers, historians, and best-selling authors. They will cover subjects ranging from eras such as Art Deco and Victorian to specific designers whose crea...Read More
Lucapa Recovers 171-carat Diamond(IDEX Online) - Lucapa has recovered the fourth largest diamond since it started mining at Lulo, Angola, five years ago.The gem-quality white stone weighs 171-carat and is the 15th diamond over 100-carats from the mine.In February 2016, Lulo yielded an enormous 404.2-carat white diamond, the biggest ever recovered in Angola, and the biggest in the history of Austra...Read More
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Twenty seven of the world's leading mining and metals companies and 36 associations are committed to climate change solutions through their membership of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), Mining Weekly can today report.The ICMM is an international organisation dedicated to a safe, fair and sustainable mining and metals industry and t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Christie's will auction a 28.86-carat diamond ring at its next Jewels Online sale, the largest D-color diamond ever offered online, the auction house said Wednesday.The emerald-cut, VVS1-clarity, type IIa stone is also the highest-priced lot ever offered for sale online at Christie's. The piece, which has a presale estimate of $1 million to $2 million, is set to go under the hamme...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India's diamond industry is resuming limited production and is poised to clear an estimated $1bn inventory for export.Retailers have also begun a phased re-opening of a very small number of stores, with strict sanitizing rules. The current lockdown is in place until 17 May.A relaxation of rules by the regional government of Maharashtra state allows a limited return to wo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Christie's is auctioning its most valuable ever lot online- a spectacular type IIa 28.86-carat diamond with a guide price of up to $2m.The incredibly rare, near-flawless, emerald-cut stone is VVS1 clarity, and the largest D-color stone Christie's has ever offered in an online-only sale.The auctioneers say increased online interest has encouraged them to offer more valuabl...Read More
Aim-listed diamond miner BlueRock Diamonds, which operates the Kareevlei mine in Kimberley, has embarked on a new selling strategy and will, from June, ship diamonds to be sold on the Antwerp market, which the miner says attracts significantly more buyers than the local South African diamond market.The company had been reviewing its sales strategy prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim of ga...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of luxury goods will fall by 20% to 35% this year as the coronavirus-related slowdown is set to continue, Bain & Company predicted.Purchases of luxury items already dropped by approximately 25% in the first quarter, and the slump is likely to accelerate in the second quarter, Bain said in its global luxury report, which it released in collaboration with Italian luxury-br...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's diamond sales plummeted 95% to $15.6 million in April, the lowest on record, as customers deferred purchases until the market improves.Rough sales slumped 96% to $13.1 million, while polished revenues fell 17% to $2.4 million, the Russian company reported Tuesday. "In response to the [coronavirus] situation, we have offered to our clients an option to buy the amounts of r...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The billionaire who owned Firestar Diamond yesterday began his legal fight against extradition to India, where he is accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank out of $1.85bn.Nirav Modi, 49, is alleged to have persuaded corrupt bank workers to approve low-rate loans for importing foreign goods, which he used to pay off debts. He was India's most wanted man and was the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The case against lab-grown diamond companies accused of patent infringements is to go ahead, after a judge threw out their motions to dismiss.The Carnegie Institution of Washington and WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the manufacturer licensed to use its chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology, are jointly bringing a case against competitors at a New York federal court.Defendants Fenix Di...Read More
(IDEX) - Alrosa's monthly figures reveal the full impact of COVID-19, with April sales of rough and polished plunging to just $15.6m.That's a fall for the state-owned Russian miner of 96 per cent on $405m sales in January, before coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions came into force. Sales for the world's largest diamond producer by volume in 2019 were $3.3bn.Alrosa sou...Read More
Sales of the world’s largest diamond miner by volume, Alrosa, came to a near halt in April, with the company only selling $15.6-million in rough and polished diamonds in the month.This compares with sales of $152.8-million in March and $405-million in January this year.AdvertisementThe Russian company virtually stopped selling diamonds as governments across the globe were taking active...Read More
RAPAPORT... Indian authorities have allowed Mumbai's diamond and jewelry companies to reopen partially on condition that they limit their workforces and follow social-distancing rules.Trade members may operate with up to 10% of their staff members in order to fulfill export commitments, the state government of Maharashtra said in a statement Monday. No one from containment zones - coronavirus...Read More
RAPAPORT... BlueRock Diamonds has resumed operations at its Kareevlei deposit in South Africa after the government allowed the mining sector to reopen.The company expects to reach full capacity by the end of the month, it said Monday. However, the miner has suspended expansion plans for Kareevlei for the moment. "Management and the board have put a lot of effort and thought into the start-up...Read More
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – How Anglo American is "delivering through volatile times" was outlined on Tuesday at Bank of America’s virtual global metals, mining and steel conference, where it reiterated its strong liquidity position of $14.5-billion, made up of $6.9-billion in cash and $7.6-billion in undrawn committed financial facilities.Anglo American CE Mark Cu...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 171-carat, gem-quality diamond from its Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.The stone is the miner's 15th over 100 carats from Lulo to date, and the second in that size category this year, following the discovery of a 117-carat stone in January. The new find is also the fourth largest ever recovered from the site, the company said Monday. Lucapa retrieve...Read More
RAPAPORT... First place is usually something to strive for, but being the number-one target for cyberattacks that steal customer data is not a distinction retailers want. As jewelers move increasingly toward online offerings, their private information becomes less secure, while hackers become more sophisticated in their retrieval methods. The retail sector had a higher number of data breaches...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucara has been forced to re-think a major expansion of its Karowe mine in Botswana after COVID-19 left it with first quarter losses of $3.2m. That compares with a profit of $7.4m for the same three months last year. The Canada-based miner has continued full production throughout the coronavirus crisis at Karowe, a mine famed for exceptional type IIA diamonds, and for having p...Read More
RAPAPORT... US retail demand will recover slowly, with economic growth expected to bounce back in the second half of the year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)."Getting back to work or shopping in a pre-virus manner is difficult to predict at this time, with households likely to tiptoe back in rather than making an immediate return to the lives they experienced before," said...Read More