RAPAPORT... Alrosa's diamond sales plummeted 85% to $40.1 million in May as the miner allowed customers to defer purchases.Rough sales slumped 86% year on year to $36.2 million, while polished revenues fell 22% to $3.9 million, the Russian miner reported Wednesday.However, total sales of rough and polished were still nearly triple April's $15.6, showing the beginning of a rebound in demand."I...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A court in India has approved the confiscation of assets owned by billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi.It's the first time new powers to seize have been exercised since the country's Fugitive Economic Offenders Act came in to force two years ago.Modi, 49, (pictured) is currently in prison in London, fighting extradition to India, where he is accused of defrauding the Punjab...Read More
(IDEX Online) - British miner BlueRock says COVID-19 knocked 15 per cent off the price of rough diamonds sold from its Kareevlei mine, in South Africa.The company yesterday announced the private sale of 2,400 carats for a total of $700,000, averaging $290 a carat."The parcel sold did not contain any notable high value diamonds and therefore the price achieved is approximately 15% below what we wou...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Angola is to establish a national bourse and diamond hub as it seeks to consolidate its position as a player on the world market.It's currently the sixth biggest diamond producer but has yet to explore 60 per cent of its potential kimberlite reserves.The government believes it could actually increase its rough production as other countries see theirs decline."The main ambition...Read More
RAPAPORT... Mountain Province plans to sell $50 million worth of rough diamonds to an entity owned by one of its major shareholders, generating liquidity amid weak prices.The first sale of $22 million in diamonds to Dunebridge Worldwide will take place on June 11, Mountain Province said Monday. The deal will enable the miner to sell its run-of-mine goods - under 10.8 carats - at the current m...Read More
RAPAPORT... Angola plans to create a diamond hub and exchange to help streamline sales and marketing of the rough the country produces.The hub will include an Angolan Diamond Bourse (ADB), a gemological academy and a technological research center. It will be located within a free-trade zone, Angola's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum (MIREMPET) said Monday. Angola is one of the worl...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. reported a strong rebound in its operations in mainland China during April and May, after Covid-19 lockdowns resulted in heavy first-quarter losses for the jeweler. "While sales in key markets like the US and Japan were down significantly during the first quarter, our business performance in mainland China, which was the first market impacted by the virus, is ind...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers' net loss increased to $190.4 million in the first fiscal quarter as the company closed all its stores for most of the period due to the coronavirus pandemic.That figure compares with a loss of $10 million during the same period a year ago, the retailer, which owns Kay, Jared and Zales, reported Tuesday. The company began closing locations in late March.Revenue dec...Read More
RAPAPORT... BlueRock Diamonds has sold a parcel of rough for $700,000 in a private sale, noting that the average realized price was approximately 15% below pre-pandemic levels.The miner sold 2,400 carats from its Kareevlei mine in South Africa at an average price of $290 per carat, the miner said Monday. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the company's rough garnered an average price of $410 per...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers' net loss increased to $190 million in the first fiscal quarter as the company closed all its stores for most of the period.That figure compares with a loss of $10 million during the same period a year ago, the retailer, which owns Kay, Jared and Zales, reported Tuesday. The company began closing locations in late March.Revenue declined 40.5% to $852.1 million in t...Read More
RAPAPORT... BlueRock Diamonds has sold a parcel of rough for $700,000 in a private sale, noting that the average realized price was approximately 15% below pre-pandemic levels.The miner sold 2,400 carats from its Kareevlei mine in South Africa at an average price of $290 per carat, the miner said Monday. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the company's rough garnered an average price of $410 per...Read More
RAPAPORT... Angola plans to create a diamond hub and exchange to help streamline sales and marketing of the rough the country produces.The hub will include an Angolan Diamond Bourse (ADB), a gemological academy and a technological research center. It will be located within a free-trade zone, Angola's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum (MIREMPET) said Monday. Angola is one of the worl...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The COVID-19 pandemic could see sales of rough diamonds globally fall by as much as 40 per cent. Lockdown measures have badly hit all stages of the diamond value chain from rough diamond miners, through cutters and polishers to the jewelry end market, according to Moody's, the international rating agency. "We forecast a 30 to 40 per cent fall in global revenue from rough...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Edward Asscher has been elected to serve a second term as president of the World Diamond Council, leading the fight against "conflict diamonds". He will be succeeded after his two-year term by Feriel Zerouki, who will make history as the WDC's first female president. Mr Asscher, 73, recently stood down as president of the iconic Amsterdam-based Royal Asscher Diamond Co, a fam...Read More
(IDEX Online) - French luxury conglomerate LVMH is now expected to go ahead as planned with its $16.2bn acquisition of US jeweler Tiffany & Co, after days of fevered speculation. Reports in the fashion Bible Women's Wear Daily (WWD) suggested late last week that LVMH Mo?? <
RAPAPORT... LVMH has promoted St?(C)phane Bianchi to CEO of its watches and jewelry division, starting July 1. Since 2018, he has been CEO of watchmaking and of the French luxury group's TAG Heuer timepiece brand.Bianchi will oversee high-end jewelers Chaumet and Fred, with those brands' managing directors reporting to him, and will retain overall responsibility for the TAG Heuer, Hublot and...Read More
RAPAPORT... The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has opened its membership to companies outside the core diamond trade, aiming to make the group more relevant and influential.Organizations connected to the diamond industry, such as retailers, can now become associate members, and their representatives can sit on the WFDB executive committee, it said Monday.One of the first such comp...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers executive Feriel Zerouki will succeed Edward Asscher as president of the World Diamond Council (WDC) in 2022, the organization said Monday.Zerouki, De Beers' senior vice president of international relations and ethical initiatives, will become the first woman to head the WDC, which works to keep conflict diamonds out of the supply chain. Its board confirmed her election as vic...Read More
RAPAPORT... Creating a special connection with the customer can help diamond sellers during the era of online commerce, Martin Rapaport explained in his annual "State of the Diamond Industry" address. Speaking via a webinar due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rapaport noted that the rise of online sales brought both threats and opportunities for the sector. But "the key to your success is custom...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gabrielle Grazi has joined the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) as its vice president for retail following seven years at Signet Jewelers.The newly created role involves establishing the NDC as the natural-diamond authority among industry members in North America. Grazi will also lead the organization's efforts in the area of trade conferences and events, the NDC said last week.She s...Read More