RAPAPORT... Alain Bernard, the former CEO of Richemont North America, will join the board of Aether Diamonds, a synthetics producer that claims to grow its stones using carbon dioxide from the air.Before his most recent position at Richemont, which he left last year to start a consulting firm, Bernard spent nearly nine years at Van Cleef & Arpels and seven at Cartier, Aether said last week. Hi...Read More
RAPAPORT... The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has appointed Eyal Shirazy as executive director of trading website Get Diamonds.Shirazy joins the business-to-business (B2B) platform from his role as chief digital officer at Shlomo Sixt Group, an Israeli company spanning the investment, automotive and insurance industries, the WFDB said last week.The WFDB adopted Get Diamonds as it...Read More
RAPAPORT... Millennial and Gen-Z shoppers are increasingly turning to lab-grown diamonds to get a larger stone more affordably in both the fashion and bridal categories, an MVI Marketing survey found.Respondents said the ability to spend less for the same size and quality was the primary reason they would select synthetics over mined diamonds, closely followed by gaining a bigger diamond for the s...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Zimbabwe could benefit from a supply gap in rough diamonds, says the CEO of its biggest miner.Russia's invasion of Ukraine could increase demand, according to Mark Mabhudhu (pictured), of the state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Co (ZCDC)."It may end up creating the supply gap that may drive demand for our product, as well as that of other players," he said in an in...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An armed gang held nine employees and customers at gunpoint in a $1.5m raid on a jewelry store.They zip-tied several victims at the Jared store in Glendale, Arizona, USA, said police, and stole their personal possessions, as well as merchandise from the store.Police arrested four suspects after a woman dialled 911 during the robbery last Wednesday evening. They face charges of arme...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond is looking for acquisition opportunities, as the industry currently lacks an investable, mid-tier mining company, CEO Eira Thomas told the Rapaport Diamond Podcast. "Right now, we have a very bipolar industry, with [De Beers and Alrosa] on one side, and a handful of smaller miners on the other," she explained to Rapaport Senior Analyst Avi Krawitz. "Consolidation makes s...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamonds from Russia should be treated as conflict diamonds, says the US-based NGO Pact."These are objectively conflict diamonds: They're funding an armed conflict against a peaceful neighbour, by a state actor," said Cristina Villegas, director of its Mines to Markets operation.She was quoted by the London-based Guardian newspaper in a piece entitled "Jewellery industry accus...Read More
RAPAPORT... Swiss watch exports surged sharply in February as demand rose in nearly every market, generating the best performance for the month the sector has seen.Global shipments increased 24% year on year to CHF 1.99 billion ($2.14 billion) for the month, the Federation of the Swiss Watch industry reported last week. "Swiss watch imports grew very strongly in February," the federation...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The world's most advanced diamond recovery vessel, the $420m Benguela Gem, is to set sail off the coast of Namibia next week.The 177-meter ship (pictured) will join Debmarine's existing five-strong fleet, which dredge thousands of tonnes of sediment fat 90 to 150 meters below the seabed, 12 miles off the south-western coast. It is expected to increase Debmarine'...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A thief working his first shift at a cutting and polishing unit in Surat walked off with rough diamonds, valued at $5,000.He'd responded to a job ad on social media and was given 550 packets of rough diamonds to work on, according to a report in The Times of India.He told three fellow workers he was going out for food during a night shift, at 2am on 2 March, but never returned...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa plans to close its New York operations as tensions between the US and Russia escalate. Rebecca Foerster, president of Alrosa USA, has left the company, the miner said Monday.The developments follow White House sanctions on Alrosa and other Russian entities amid the country's continued war in Ukraine. The US has also banned the import of Russian diamonds, adding to the...Read More
RAPAPORT... Belgian diamond manufacturer HB Antwerp has appointed Valerie Geluykens as head of sustainability for Signum, its experiential luxury brand.Geluykens recently joined the company from Claes Retail Group, owner of Belgian fashion labels CKS, JBC and Mayerline, HB said last week. Signum is a technology-based brand that enables customers to buy diamonds in physical and digital forms,...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa's rough shipments to India have reportedly resumed, with payments being made in euro via banks in Germany.Supplies were suspended following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month and the subsequent removal of Russian banks from SWIFT, the mechanism that enables foreign currency transactions.Alrosa, a third-owned by the Russian government, has now started shipping...Read More
RAPAPORT... India's polished-diamond exports rose 14% year on year in February, while rough imports jumped 40%, according to data the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) released last week. An increase in the average price of outbound polished shipments outweighed a drop in volume.India Trade Data for February 2022 Read More
RAPAPORT... An 8.82-carat, fancy-intense-purple-pink diamond ring with a high estimate of $6 million is set to headline the New York auction at Christie's next month.The pear modified brilliant-cut, VVS1-clarity diamond, called The Fuchsia Rose, has the potential to be internally flawless, Christie's said last week. The auction house will offer the stone at its Magnificent Jewels sale on April 13,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds' revenue and earnings jumped last year as the sector bounced back from the Covid-19 downturn.Sales rose 6.5% to $201.9 million, the owner of the Let??eng mine in Lesotho said Thursday. Net profit attributable to shareholders increased 9% to $14.8 million.Prices have climbed steadily since the second half of 2020 as market sentiment improved and supply declined. They a...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sanctions may have a limited impact on the overall supply and demand of diamonds, says Stephen Lussier, chairman of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), and outgoing executive vice president for brands and consumer markets at De Beers Group."There are a lot of markets that aren't going to follow the EU and US lead [on sanctions] and some consumers aren't going to be influen...Read More
RAPAPORT... Revenue at US jewelry retailer Brilliant Earth beat the company's expectations in the fourth quarter, reflecting success in attracting younger customers, it reported.Net sales rose 38% year on year to $121.9 million for the period, while net profit slipped 15% to $11.4 million, the company said last week. Full-year sales jumped 51% to $380.2 million, with profit up 22% at $26.3 mi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet has announced a boycott of diamonds and precious metals from Russia.The move came as it announced a steep hike in revenue for the last quarter, with total sales of $2.8bn, largely driven by a post-Covid wedding surge.The world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry - parent company to Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, Direct, JamesAllen.com and others - now accounts for 9.3 pe...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers has revealed the newest member of its underwater mining fleet: a $420 million ship that is set to add 500,000 carats of high-value diamonds to its annual production from Debmarine Namibia.The custom-built vessel, called the Benguela Gem, will begin diamond-recovery operations this week, De Beers said Friday. Paid for by De Beers and the Namibian government - the miner's 50:50...Read More