RAPAPORT... The week of September 14 was as momentous as they come for Yoram Dvash. The 56-year-old head of the Israel Diamond Exchange was elected president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), having served as its interim leader since April, while his office facilitated the biennial World Diamond Congress (WDC) taking place for the first time via Zoom.Meanwhile, the historic Abraha...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Women's Jewelry Association (WJA) has awarded the 2020 Cindy Edelstein scholarship to California-based jewelry designer Olivia Shih.The $5,000 grant - named for the jewelry consultant and author, who died in 2016 - is given to emerging fine-jewelry designers or artisans, WJA said last week. It can be used to pursue jewelry-design, metalsmith, or business courses that focus on impro...Read More
RAPAPORT... Firestone Diamonds plans to sell a portion of its inventory next month to assess the prices it can secure for its rough stones as the market begins to recover.The miner is holding 64,700 carats of rough from its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho, which has been on care and maintenance since April due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will separate those into at least two parcels and place them o...Read More
RAPAPORT... The quarterly Diamond Trends Webinar that took place on October 22 outlined the key developments the trade should look out for during the holiday season and 2021.Rapaport Senior Analyst Avi Krawitz provides context regarding how Covid-19 has impacted the market during the first 10 months of the year, along with an overview of polished prices and the supply-demand dynamic that determine...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers has extended its current sightholder contract by three months after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the renewal process.The supply agreement, originally due to expire on December 31, will remain in place until March 31, 2021, a De Beers spokesperson told Rapaport News Monday. This means the contract will now cover the first three sights of next year, which are scheduled t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Rapaport's quarterly Diamond Trends Webinar outlined the key developments the trade should look out for during the holiday season and 2021.The webinar, presented last week by Rapaport Senior Analyst Avi Krawitz, provides context regarding how Covid-19 has impacted the market during the first 10 months of the year, along with an overview of polished prices and the supply-demand dyn...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The future of Canada's Diavik mine is in doubt after a deal to rescue Dominion, its troubled minority-owner, fell through.Dominion stopped making payments to DDMI, the Rio Tinto subsidiary that operates the deposit, when it filed for insolvency protection in April. It currently owes over US$90m.DDMI says it can't afford to make preparations for the harsh winter, jus...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa is streamlining its manufacturing operations, which are currently run as three separate entities.The Russian state-owned miner says the creation of a single production framework will allocate diamond output more efficiently between three sites, and allow them to provide mutual back-up if the pandemic forces further closures.Between them they currently account for half of the...Read More
RAPAPORT... Kering's jewelry brands performed well in the third quarter of 2020 amid a recovery in the luxury-goods market in the Asia-Pacific region."Despite their significant exposure to Western Europe and Japan, the jewelry houses held up well," the luxury group said last week.Sales were bolstered by the growth of the group's Boucheron brand in Asia Pacific as demand in the region began to rebo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A ring set with a pear-shaped 12.38-carat VVS2 fancy pink diamond was sold to an online bidder for $4.6m by Sotheby's. The pink gem was flanked by by two pear-shaped white diamonds, both D color and IF, weighing 0.52 and 0.51 carats. The estimate was $4m to $5m. It was the star lot in a hybrid live/online auction in New York, Sotheby's first sale with bidders in attendanc...Read More
RAPAPORT... Kering's jewelry brands performed well in the third quarter of 2020 amid a recovery in the luxury-goods market in the Asia-Pacific region."Despite their significant exposure to Western Europe and Japan, the jewelry houses held up well," the luxury group said last week.Sales were bolstered by the growth of the group's Boucheron brand in Asia Pacific as demand in the region began to rebo...Read More
RAPAPORT... Christie's will offer a brooch by Graff containing a 107.46-carat, fancy-yellow diamond at its Geneva Magnificent Jewels auction.The piece, which features the brilliant-cut stone surrounded by white diamonds, is estimated to fetch up to CHF 3.3 million ($3.6 million) at the November 10 sale, Christie's said last week.A pair of earrings, each containing a pear-shaped white diamond as we...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers' diamond output showed a solid third-quarter recovery, down just four cent year-on-year despite the devastating impact of coronavirus.Total production was 7.2m carats compared with 7.4m carats in Q3 2019, according to figures released by parent company Anglo American. Output in Q2 of 2020 was less than half, 3.5m carats.Mark Cutifani, Anglo American chief executive, r...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa is to extend existing three-year rough diamond supply contracts to help buyers respond to ongoing market uncertainties.The Russian miner usually analyzes trading activity at the year end, to determine who will be on its long-term client list and what product mix they'll be offered.It is delaying that assessment until the end of March 2021 "to support its clients amid th...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The first ever educational course dedicated to lab-grown diamonds is being launched for the industry by GSI.The New York-based lab has graded identified hundreds of thousands of lab-growns and will share its knowledge online through Laboratory-Grown Diamond Essentials."It is imperative that the jewelry industry has the ability to communicate about laboratory-grown diamonds confiden...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has delayed its new supply contract for rough buyers until early next year due to uncertainty in the diamond industry, the Russian miner said Friday.The current market environment has made it hard for diamond companies to commit to long-term plans, Alrosa explained. As a result, the company will assess clients' allocations at the end of the first quarter of 2021, and has ex...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's garnered $17.9 million from its Important Jewels sale in New York, with a pink-diamond ring taking the top spot.The pear-shaped, 12.38-carat, fancy-pink, VVS2-clarity diamond ring fetched $4.6 million, or $373,337 per carat, falling within the price range the auctioneer had estimated. It led the auction house's first live jewelry sale in the state since the coronavirus p...Read More
RAPAPORT... US consumers ranked jewelry low on their list of gifts to buy and receive from loved ones, as many plan to curb their spending this holiday season amid strong concerns about economic stability.The category was the bottom pick when it came to items shoppers would purchase as a gift, chosen by only 24% of respondents in Deloitte's recently released 2020 Holiday Retail Survey, which predi...Read More
RAPAPORT... Rio Tinto has asked a Canadian court to allow it to sell its partner's portion of rough diamonds from the Diavik mine to recoup more than CAD $120 million ($91.4 million). Dominion Diamond Mines, which owns 40% of the joint venture, filed for creditor protection in April, citing mounting debt and an inability to sell its diamonds during the coronavirus pandemic. It has since missed two...Read More
RAPAPORT... WD Lab Grown Diamonds has entered into patent sublicensing agreements with two synthetics companies, enabling them to distribute chemical vapor deposition (CVD) stones in North America and beyond.The deals with Altr and Altr (India), as well as with Evolution Diamond, relate to intellectual property belonging to the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the science organization behi...Read More