(IDEX Online) - A Chinese billionaire living in the USA has ordered the world's most expensive COVID-19 face mask - costing $1.5m.Teams of jewelers are working in shifts to set 3,608 natural black and white diamonds (weighing 210 carats) into 270 grams of pure 18k gold.The anonymous customer from Shanghai is having the mask designed and made by Orna and Isaac Levy, owners of the Yvel luxury j...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Canadian miner Star Diamond claims Rio Tinto, senior partner in a joint exploration project, may be to blame for damage to some sample stones.The two companies are already tangled in a legal row over terms of another venture. Star Diamond accuses Rio Tinto of "bad faith predatory practices", gross overspending on exploration costs at the Star-Orion South project in Saskatchew...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The desire for diamonds is as strong as ever says De Beers boss Bruce Cleaver.He was launching the company's latest Global Sentiment Report, an assessment of consumer confidence in the wake of COVID-19.The report, based on 2,800 people in the USA, China and India, revealed that that sentiment was improving as consumers adjusted to the 'new normal' and were considerin...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers will launch its Forevermark diamond brand in New Zealand in partnership with local retailer Partridge Jewellers.Forevermark's high-end Black Label collection will be available at three Partridge stores in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, De Beers said Wednesday. Forevermark will also run an advertising campaign alongside the launch, which will include print, digital and...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. has retained a spot on the National Retail Federation's (NRF) list of the fastest-growing US retailers.The New York-based company came in at number 95, the only jewelry specialist to make the cut this year, slipping from 68th in 2019. Grocery chain Lidl nabbed the first position, with Wayfair, Build.com, Don Quijote and Amazon rounding out the top five.The NRF publish...Read More
RAPAPORT... Titan Company, India's largest jewelry retailer, recorded heavy losses in the first fiscal quarter as the coronavirus forced it to close stores for most of the period.The company reported a net loss of INR 2.97 billion ($39.7 million) for the three months ending June 30, compared to a profit of INR 3.64 ($48.6 million) during the same period a year ago. Revenue plunged 61% to INR 20.2...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is launching a new digital report for lab-grown diamonds that will feature specific color and clarity grades. The organization, which currently only offers loose descriptions and grade ranges for synthetics, will introduce the new reports early in the fourth quarter, it said Tuesday.The service will incorporate the GIA's two existing lab-...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Fewer than a third of Surat's diamond factories have returned to work despite Unlock 3.0, an easing of restrictions by authorities in India. Owners have to cover the costs of mandatory COVID-19 rapid antigen tests for all workers and say they simply can't afford it. In addition, many artisans have returned to their rural villages in Saurashtra, and are afraid to return be...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Botswana, the world's top diamond-producing country by value, saw Q2 sales fall by almost two-thirds because of coronavirus. Pandemic-related travel bans and reduced outputs resulted in sales of just $294m, down 64 per cent from $807m for the same period in 2019, according to Bank of Botswana data. First quarter sales for 2020, before the full impact of the pande...Read More
Digital platform revolutionizes traditional jeweler business practices NEENAH, Wis. (August 11, 2020) - Jewelers Mutual Group launched the ZingTM platform, created to drive the jewelry industry into the future. The Zing platform empowers jewelers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and others to conduct business digitally. It simplifies pro...Read More
RAPAPORT... The killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in May and the subsequent protests split US society in a way that few other events have. While companies in all sectors have increasingly engaged in corporate activism in recent years, the latest debate over race has prompted countless brands to weigh in on the issue.Yet for jewelers, it's not so simple. They have seen how even th...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. reported a loss for the second quarter amid weaker demand and a planned halt on regular tenders of large stones from its Karowe mine.The company recorded a net loss of $13.9 million for the period ending June 30, compared with a profit of $700,000 during the same period the year before, the company said Monday. Revenue from the Botswana deposit plunged 82% yea...Read More
RAPAPORT... Consumers are showing strong interest in buying diamonds for their loved ones this holiday season, seeing a need to give something special following an uncertain year, according to a survey by De Beers.In the US, almost 60% of men said they planned to buy their significant other a diamond for the festive season, while nearly a third of women expressed an intention to purchase diam...Read More
(IDEX Online) - There is light at the end of the tunnel for the diamond industry, says WFDB acting president Yoram Dvash.COVID-19 has become a fact of life, he tells members in a newsletter, but there is cause for optimism.Mr Dvash (pictured) heads the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and is also president of the Israel Diamond Exchange.He praises the two biggest diamond miners, Alrosa an...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Canadian miner Mountain Province Diamonds plunged into the red, reporting Q2 losses of $21.8m as COVID-19 brought demand to a virtual halt.But as the pandemic closed markets, globally, a "vital liquidity lifeline" negotiated with shareholder Dunebridge Worldwide allowed it to carry on selling.Almost all its sales ($22.6m out of ?, ?25m) were to Dunebridge, the Bahamas-registered co...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has recovered a 236-carat, intense-yellow-brown diamond, the largest natural colored diamond found in Russia.The stone, which the miner recovered from its Ebelyakh deposit in Yakutia, is an estimated 120 million to 230 million years old, Alrosa said last week. The company's United Selling Organization unit is currently studying and evaluating the diamond to decide whether it wil...Read More
RAPAPORT... The question of how to tackle the hardships facing informal diamond miners is as pressing today as it was when it first arose nearly 20 years ago.It was first touted as an issue that perhaps the Kimberley Process (KP) could incorporate into its mission. But the KP was not equipped - or mandated - to meet the challenge, even if the sector represented an Achilles heel for a body tas...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa today reported another month of weak sales, with rough and polished totaling just $35.8m for July, down 79 per cent on last year.The Russian state-owned miner is widely reported to be seeking another rescue deal to sell up to $1bn of rough to Gokhran, the finance ministry's precious metals and gems repository.Alrosa negotiated a similar deal, also for $1bn, during...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sales of custom-made jewelry have spiked since COVID-19 lockdown, says a cutting and polishing firm in South Africa.Nungu Diamonds has experienced unprecedented demand for engagement and wedding rings since restrictions were imposed in March, according to a Reuters news agency report.Sales are up 60 per cent and June was its best month in a year.Kealeboga Pule, founder of the compa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Fugitive diamond billionaire Nirav Modi is to appear at a five-day hearing in London next month, when a judge will decide whether he should be extradited to India for trial. The 49-year-old jeweler is alleged to have defrauded the Punjab National Bank out of out of $1.85bn by persuading corrupt workers to approve low-rate loans for importing foreign goods, which he used to p...Read More