Optimism driven by shortages and steady US demand. Some uncertainty regarding prices. Dealers concerned that current price levels may not be sustainable once inventory expands. GIA bottleneck persists amid record global submissions and over one-month turnaround at India labs. Rough market robust during Alrosa sale. De Beers June revenue better than expected at $470M. Lucara's Karowe mine in Botswa...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers' rough sales reached a three-month high at its June cycle as retail demand remained strong and India's Covid-19 crisis eased.The miner saw proceeds of $470 million at its fifth trading session of the year, up from $385 million in May, it reported Wednesday. A year earlier, the company registered sales of only $56 million for the fourth and fifth cycles combined, as the co...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Bulk sampling for high-value fancy yellow to orange yellow diamonds is about to start in Canada's northernmost territory.Field crews for Vancouver-based North Arrow Minerals will collect up 2,000 tonnes in a $4.5m program funded by partner Burgundy Diamond Mines.Eight kimberlite pipes have been identified at the Naujaat Project near the community of Naujaat, Nunavut, in the Ca...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A rough tender held in Dubai last week raised around $30m, with all 18,655 carats sold, said Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS).All qualities and sizes were in "extraordinarily strong demand", it said, especially single stones and exceptional specials.First-time customers from Israel attended, as well buying teams for Indian clientele.TAGS said it achieved record pricing across all ra...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A huge 1,174-carat diamond has been recovered in Botswana - just days after the announcement of a 1,098-carat stone.The newly-discovered stone (pictured), from Lucara's Karowe mine, is a clivage gem, which will need to be split before being processed further.It weighs 1,174.76 carat, but could well have been part of an even bigger rough stone - of more than 2,000 carats."On th...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. has recovered a 1,174.76-carat rough diamond from its Karowe mine in Botswana and believes it was originally part of a stone weighing more than 2,000 carats. The clivage diamond - which needs to be split before processing - came from the site's south lobe EM/PK(S) area, known for its large, high-quality rough, Lucara said Tuesday. The rough contains "significa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers sold $470m (provisional) of rough at Sight 5, which has just ended in Gabarone, halting a four-month slide in sales.In a statement released today the miner said sentiment was "increasingly optimistic", despite ongoing Covid concerns.Sales at its fourth sight of 2021 were $385m, the lowest this year. Sales in January peaked at $663m, a three-year-high. They fell to $550m in...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sotheby's Hong Kong could make cryptocurrency history when it auctions a 101.38-carat diamond next month.Buyers will have the option of paying in Bitcoin or Ethereum.That means the stone could set a record as the highest-priced diamond - or indeed any physical object - ever to be sold in a crypto-transaction.The high estimate is $15m - equivalent to BTC515 or ETH8787 at today&...Read More
RAPAPORT... Namakwa Diamonds, owner of the Kao mine in Lesotho, plans to sell a pink diamond weighing 21.86 carats at a tender in Antwerp next month.The miner recovered the Pink Palesa - meaning pink flower in the local Sesotho language - last month, according to brokerage and consultancy firm Bonas Group, which is organizing the sale. The Kao mine, which Namakwa operates through subsidiary S...Read More
RAPAPORT... Indian banks have increased lending to the gem and jewelry industry, helping stem the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's major trade organization said this week.Credit released to the industry jumped to INR 627 billion ($8.44 billion) in March 2021 from INR 546 billion ($7.35 billion) in July 2020, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).P...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A buyer paid $2.7m, the highest price ever for a diamond auctioned online.The 50.03-ct G-color, VVS2-clarity round gem, with excellent cut, polish and symmetry, was sold by Sotheby's New York without reserve. The estimate was $2.5m to $5m. Eleven individual bidders from seven countries battled it out for what the auction house says was only the fifth round +50-ct diamond...Read More
RAPAPORT... A spike in demand for graded diamonds is responsible for the ongoing backlog of goods at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the organization explained to Rapaport News. While government restrictions have curbed business activity in India since a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections there from late March, the GIA stressed it had been working at the maximum allowable capacity...Read More
RAPAPORT... Despite the lockdowns, mask mandates, economic anxiety and fraught political landscape, 2020 wasn't a bad year for jewelers. "So many retailers find themselves in the best cash positions they have had in years, if not the best in their history," says Abe Sherman, CEO of business consulting firm Buyers Intelligence Group. US jewelry sales figures for March 2021 testify to that: The...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's will auction a massive flawless diamond valued at up to $15 million next month, making the rare move of accepting payment in cryptocurrency. The pear-shaped, 101.38-carat, D-color diamond, known as The Key 10138, will feature in a single-lot live auction in Hong Kong on July 9, Sotheby's said Monday. The diamond is the first jewelry piece for which the company is accepting di...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diacore has revealed that it was the buyer of a 204.36-carat, yellow diamond that sold for $5 million at Christie's New York earlier this month.Known as the Dancing Sun, the VVS2-clarity stone is the largest polished diamond of North American origin, the dealer and manufacturer said last week. It was cut from a 552.74-carat rough unearthed at the Diavik mine in Canada in 2018. Chr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's shareholders elected a new supervisory board last week, with independent directors now accounting for a third of the team.The number of independent members in the 15-person board grew to five from three following a vote at an annual general meeting on June 16, the miner said Thursday.At its next meeting, the board will select the new chairman and appoint members to compan...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Eight suspects have been arrested over an attempted gem heist in which smoke bombs caused panic among the crowds at St Mark's Square, in Venice.Visitors feared a terror attack was under way when the raiders struck in March 2017.It soon became clear the confusion was a cover for an attempted robbery at a high-end jewelry store.A tourist alerted police and the raiders - at least...Read More
(IDEX Online) - It started as an April Fool's joke - but Tiffany & Co really is replacing its iconic robin-egg blue with a bright yellow house color. At least in some locations, and for a limited period.The Rodeo Drive store, in Beverly Hills (pictured) has had a (temporary) yellow makeover and selected outlets globally will follow suit.Tiffany & Co fooled some of its Instagram f...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The stones that triggered a "diamond rush" last week in South Africa are nothing more than worthless quartz, say officials.An estimated 3,000 fortune seekers converged on fields outside KwaHlathi, in KwaZulu-Natal province, armed with picks, shovels and forks after word spread on social media.A team of geoscientists and mining experts confirmed yesterday that the stones were quartz...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Two friends of an illegal diamond panner in Zimbabwe have admitted murdering him 12 years ago - after being haunted by his "avenging spirit".They have finally revealed that Welldone Mutangabende was not the crushed in a mineshaft collapse in the Marange diamond fields, as it had appeared at the time.John Muchinganwa and Willard Kushanya have now admitted staging the "accident" afte...Read More