RAPAPORT... Jewelry sales in the US will jump during the traditional two-month holiday period as consumers have cash saved up, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.Revenue from the category will grow 59% year on year from November 1 to December 24 and 53% over 2019's total, the company forecast Monday. Over the "75 days of Christmas" from October 11 to December 24, jewelry sales are anticipated t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has signed an agreement with the state-owned diamond company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that will see the pair work together on exploration, mining and processing of rough.The Russian miner and the Bakwanga Diamond Company (Miba) will share technological, scientific and technical information to enable them to increase business in the diamond industry, Alrosa s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds saw a jump in revenues and a return to profit in the past fiscal year amid record sales of large and exceptional stones.Group sales soared 65% to $402.3 million in the 12 months ending June 30, the mining company reported Tuesday. Sales volume rose 51% to 3.9 million carats, while profit came to $196.6 million, compared with a loss of $223 million for the previous y...Read More
RAPAPORT... The diamond industry owes much of its current uptrend to US consumer demand for jewelry. The major retail jewelers are seeing record sales, and the independents are celebrating "Christmas every day," as one store owner put it at the recent JCK Las Vegas fair. The rebound was also evident in the amount of business taking place during Las Vegas jewelry week in late August, which inc...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A rapper in Mexico has had gold chains surgically implanted into his scalp.Dan Sur, 23, boasted to his 1.9m followers online that he was "the first rapper to have gold hair implanted in human history".They were hooked under his skin in April but Sur has only just started posted pictures. No details of the (painful?) procedure have been disclosed.In February we reported that U...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sotheby's is rolling out its cryptocurrency program by accepting Bitcoin, Ether or USD Coin payments for all lots at a forthcoming diamond auction in Hong Kong.It follows its sale in July of a 101.38-carat pear-shaped D-color flawless diamond to an anonymous crypto buyer for $16.4m (pre-sale estimate $10m to $15m).All eight lots at Sotheby's forthcoming auction - Di...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has uncovered a synthetic diamond with a forged inscription that fraudsters used to "precisely match" a similar natural stone.A round brilliant, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) stone weighing 3.078 carats was submitted to the GIA's Antwerp lab for its update service, the institute reported last week in the summer 2021 issue of Gems & Gemol...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Burgundy, new owner of the Ellendale Mine, in Australia, has bought its first batch of third-party diamonds for in-house cutting and polishing.The Perth-based company announced in June that it was opening a manufacturing facility for yellow diamonds from Ellendale - due to re-open next year - and for diamonds from other sources.It bought a small number of large fancy vivid and fanc...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lusix, an Israel-based lab-grown diamond company, is expanding its production capabilities amid rising demand for the category, founder Benny Landa told the Rapaport Diamond Podcast.The company currently synthesizes diamonds at its sole operations center in the Israeli city of Rehovot. It uses the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, which bears some similarities to digital pri...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Rough gems recovered by small-scale miners in India's Panna district are to be auctioned by the local diamond office.A total of 139 stones, weighing 156.46 carats, will be sold later this month (21 September) and are expected to fetch approximately $144,000.Miners, many working part-time alongside farming or laboring jobs, pay $2.70 for the rights to dig a 25ft square patch in...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An armed robber walked into a New York jewelry store, fired a shot above the counter and ordered staff to fill his shopping bag with gems.He fled with jewelry worth over $100,000, said police, in the raid on Prince Street Jewelers at City Point Mall in Downtown Brooklyn.CCTV shows the hooded perpetrator - wearing dark glasses and a Covid mask - gesturing to employees to place items...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamond wholesaler Samir Gems and jeweler Tach?(C) Company have agreed to fund a Sierra Leone mine in exchange for rights to its rough diamonds.The Antwerp-based companies will partner with Meya Mining, which runs the Meya Project, an operation consisting of numerous kimberlites located within a 129-square-kilometer area. The money will enable the miner to begin commercial product...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa's rough and polished sales slipped again in August to a 2021 low of $306m (provisional).The Russian miner has resorted to topping up its inventory with rough from the state-run Gokhran as it struggles with record low stockpiles."Our total sales in carats were lower due to a lack of rough inventories available for sale," the company said in a statement.Total sales were $...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Two suspects have been arrested and five remain at large after a $12m armed heist at Bulgari's flagship store in Paris.One was shot in the leg by police as he fled the store, in the capital's prestigious Place Vendome (pictured) last Tuesday. Other raiders escaped in a grey BMW and on scooters.Officers fired shots at the car, forcing three occupants to try to flee on foot...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Al Capone's diamond-encrusted platinum Patek Philippe pocket watch is to be auctioned - even though it doesn't work. It's among 174 items - including two guns - being sold by California-based auctioneers Witherell's in a sale entitled A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone (Live). The watch owned by the infamous Prohibition-era crime boss is s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's will allow buyers to pay in Bitcoin or Ether for all items at its upcoming Hong Kong auction, following a successful experiment with cryptocurrency earlier this summer.A Harry Winston diamond necklace will lead the September 24 auction, which Sotheby's has called "Diamonds: The Dazzling ?^?," using the mathematical symbol for infinity. The piece is the auction house's first s...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has released a new campaign featuring Ana de Armas, its second starring the James Bond actress.The ad, the latest installment in the "For Moments Like No Other" campaign, showcases the role natural diamonds play in celebrating a variety of life events, the NDC said last week. In the video, de Armas wears an 11-piece diamond-jewelry collection custom ma...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has released a new campaign featuring Ana de Armas, its second starring the James Bond actress.The ad, the latest installment in the "For Moments Like No Other" campaign, showcases the role natural diamonds play in celebrating a variety of life events, the NDC said last week. In the video, de Armas wears an 11-piece diamond-jewelry collection custom ma...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales jumped 41% year on year in August amid steady consumer demand, even as inventory shortages led to the lowest monthly sales since the start of the year.Diamond revenue surged to $306 million, up from $216.7 million a year earlier, when the market was just beginning its recovery from the coronavirus crisis, the miner said last week. Sales rose 68% compared to August 2019's...Read More
Market sentiment positive. Dealers looking for goods after Las Vegas shows raise expectations for holiday season. Some uncertainty over US labor shortage and inflation that may disrupt upbeat consumer confidence. Manufacturers concerned about supply scarcities ahead of peak trading period. De Beers sees robust demand at $515M Aug. sight. Christie's to auction pair of Marie Antoinette diamond brace...Read More