(IDEX Online) - Angola's national diamond company raised over $56.6m in its third and largest rough auction.Fifty companies from the world's main diamond markets bid online for special stones from the Uari, Lulo and Catoca mines, as well as run-of-mine goods from the Luele kimberlite production in the Luaxe region. Sodiam, the Luanda-based company that has been marketing Angol...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has signed actress Ana de Armas to be its global ambassador for the second consecutive year as it prepares for the September launch of its next advertising campaign. In the NDC ads, De Armas - who stars in the upcoming bond film No Time to Die and plays Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's soon-to-be-released biopic Blonde - will spotlight an 11-piece collectio...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucara has announced $31m of new funding to operate and develop its Karowe mine, in Botswana.It comes just days after the miner revealed the recovery of a 1,174-carat diamond at the deposit, which has a reputation for producing large, high quality, Type IIa stones.Canada-based Lucara is raising $22m from syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets and $16m in a private pla...Read More
RAPAPORT... A pair of diamond earrings by Harry Winston was the top-selling item at a Phillips auction in New York, bringing in $390,600.Created in 1957, the earrings contain two pear-shaped diamonds weighing 5.27 and 5.76 carats, as well as two marquise-cut diamonds. The price fell just shy of its $400,000 upper estimate at the June 25 auction, which fetched a total of $3.8 million, Phillips said...Read More
RAPAPORT... A US judge has thrown out WD Lab Grown Diamonds' lawsuit against a rival synthetics brand that the company had accused of violating its patents.Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled in favor of Fenix Diamonds earlier this month, concluding that WD had not provided evidence of any infringement. He granted Fenix's motion for summary judgement, meaning there will be no trial.The Carnegie Institu...Read More
RAPAPORT... Revenue at Tse Sui Luen (TSL) fell during the full fiscal year, as coronavirus-related challenges in Hong Kong and Macau outweighed a recovery in China.Group revenue dropped 9% to HKD 2.65 billion ($341.6 million) for the 12 months ending March 31. Sales in mainland China climbed 9% to HKD 2.16 billion ($278.7 million. However, that rise could not offset a 50% decrease to HKD 423.6 mil...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has resumed production at its Zarya open-pit mine in Yakutia after closing it for more than a year.The first ore from the site since its reopening has already gone to the processing plant, Alrosa said last week. The miner suspended operations at Zarya and the rest of its Aikhal division in May 2020 due to the heavy impact of the coronavirus pandemic on diamond demand.Zarya has s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Baselworld will return primarily as a business-to-business platform targeting the mid-range luxury segment, with live events supplementing a digital platform, organizer MCH Group said.MCH will launch the digital platform this fall, and will premiere its live events with a popup in Geneva from August 30 to September 3. The main Basel 2022 show will take place from March 31 to April...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. has sold shares in the company for $30.9 million, granting it extra funding to maintain and develop the Karowe mine in Botswana.A syndicate of investors led by BMO Capital Markets has agreed to purchase 29.4 million common sharesfor CAD 22 million ($17.9 million), Lucara said last week. They implemented the transaction on a "bought-deal" basis, meaning they have bo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Child miners are using homing pigeons to smuggle diamonds from the mines where they work, claims a new book.They risk having their fingers broken, or worse, says US-based author Matthew Gavin Frank in Flight Of The Diamond Smugglers, a harrowing account of poverty and desperation on the west coast of Namibia and South Africa.He tells in great detail how a 13-year-old boy hides a pi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Baselworld is back from the dead, with a five-day event planned for spring 2022.Organizers of the iconic Swiss trade show said they were dropping the name after an exodus of big-name exhibitors and a bitter refunds row over the Covid-enforced cancelations of its 2020 event.They even announced its new incarnation, a watch and jewelry event to be called HourUniverse, which was billed...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa has resumed production at its Zarya pipe, in Yakutia, eastern Russia, as the diamond market recovers.The mine, responsible for just 0.9 per cent of the group's total output, was put on care in maintenance in May 2020. Alrosa said Zarya was among its lower margin mines due to the quality characteristics of its stones.The 300-meter deep open pit, developed at a cost...Read More
RAPAPORT... A ruby and diamond ring led the Bonhams Jewels and Jadeite sale in Hong Kong, which saw nine of the top 10 lots beat their high estimates.The Van Cleef & Arpels piece, which contained a 3.21-carat, pigeon's blood Burmese ruby surrounded by diamonds, sold for HKD 3.8 million ($483,480) at the June 20 auction. That total was well above its high valuation, Bonhams said last week. A ra...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Assets worth a total of $1.3bn seized from diamond fugitives Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, and businessman Vijay Mallya, have been returned to the banks in India from which they were allegedly defrauded.The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates economic crime in India, said on Tuesday that it had unraveled a web of dummy entities at home and abroad used to rotate and...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US sales of watches and jewelry in April were up by 176 per cent year-on-year, reflecting a robust recovery from the depths of the global pandemic. April 2020 saw total sales halved, as the first lockdowns and travel restrictions were imposed. Year-on-year sales have been steadily increasing since June 2020. In March 2021 there was a rise of almost 90 per cent, the first comparison...Read More
RAPAPORT... When Pandora announced that it was moving to synthetics because the segment aligned with its sustainability goals, the natural-diamond trade responded by highlighting the tens of millions of people who depend on mined diamonds for income."The misleading narrative created by the Pandora announcement implying the natural-diamond industry is both less ethical and the impetus behind Pandor...Read More
RAPAPORT... WD Lab Grown Diamonds has introduced a new brand it said offered fully traceable, US-grown and guaranteed conflict-free synthetic stones. The company, which has achieved a sustainability rating through SCS Global Services, noted Tuesday individual third-party certifications would accompany each Latitude stone.Latitude's chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds are graded by independent...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A 21.86-carat natural pink diamond from the Kao mine, in Lesotho, is be sold next month in Antwerp.Kao is one of the few sources of pink diamonds following the closure last year of Rio Tinto's iconic Argyle mine, in Australia, which provided 90 per cent of the world's pinks.The rough stone (pictured), discovered on 18 May and named The Pink Palesa, will be offered for sal...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Kimberley Process (KP) intersessional meeting is taking place this week amid repeated calls to expand the definition of conflict diamonds and concerns that the scheme is not keeping up with sustainability and digital trends."The prevailing subjects that are today on the agenda of the international community, as well as that of the diamond industry, are human rights, environmental p...Read More
RAPAPORT... A pigeon's blood Burma ruby more than doubled its high estimate at a Doyle sale in New York last week that featured big hitters such as Graff and Cartier.The 3.90-carat ruby is set in a circa 1920 ring with a 2.65-carat, F-color, VS1-clarity diamond, according to the US-based auction house. The piece sold for $510,300 against an estimate of up to $250,000.Included in the same collectio...Read More