Virtual Diamond Boutique (VDB), a sourcing and trading app for the jewelry industry, has added lab-grown diamonds (LGDS) to its product categories. The LGD products will be segregated from mined diamonds, but will offer all the visual and technical search, buy, hold, and memo features of the VDB platform. "This may be viewed as a controversial move by some in the jewelry industry," said Tanya Nisg...Read More
Laurelton Diamonds Belgium BVBA will be holding the viewings of its next tender of rough and sawn diamonds at the Antwerp Diamond Tender Facility, Belgiumi in April. Laurelton, a subsidiary of Tiffany & Co, is a rough diamond manufacturing and trading company with operations across the globe. The company procures rough diamonds and manages the worldwide supply chain that cuts, polishes and sup...Read More
Prices of small polished diamonds, also called melees, are expected to drop further in the next three, to four months as diamond manufacturers in Surat are selling off their inventories at discounts of 30 to even 40 percent to pay of loans they have taken with their local banks, The Times of India reports. The newspaper said that banks have given their diamond manufacturing clients until the end o...Read More
Berenberg, Germany's oldest owner-managed private bank, has downgraded the ratings of several junior miners, among the Gem Diamonds, and reduced its target prices for others such as Petra Diamonds and Firestone Diamonds PLC and has published "a cautious note on the gemstone sector," Proactiveinvestors of the UK reported on its website. "The German bank cut its stance on Gem to 'hold'...Read More
RAPAPORT... A fancy-intense-blue diamond ring with an estimate of $2.5million to $3 million is on track to be the top seller at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction in NewYork next month. The cut-cornered square modified brilliant-cut, 3.24-caratstone, flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds, will go under the hammer at the April17 sale, Sotheby's said Wednesday. Other notable pieces include a p...Read More
LONDON – For more than 15 years, the diamond industry has been telling the world about a looming shortage of gems. Instead, demand has been stubbornly underwhelming, and the miners have done a wonderful job of digging more and more stones.But the pain may soon be over for an industry that’s being squeezed by oversupply. In two separate reports this week, analysts set out forecasts of...Read More
Diamond Services, a Hong Kong-based developer of tech systems for detecting lab-grown, imitation and treated diamonds, has created a new device aimed at amplifying the range of detectable merchandise to include all rough and polished stones in the lower yellowish-to-light-brown colour ranges.According to the developer, this is the first device capable of identifying the yellowish gems together wit...Read More
RAPAPORT... Impairment charges resulting from tax changes ledGemfields to a loss of $60.4 million in 2018, it said Monday. The group reported a profit of $45.1 million the previousyear. Last year, the Zambian government introduced a 15% export levy thatrequired Gemfields to have its Kagem emerald mine revalued. This contributed toa $26.6 million devaluation, which included an inventory impair...Read More
RAPAPORT... Botswana Diamonds will begin bulk sampling and diamondproduction from its Thorny River project in South Africa in May. It will then ramp up output to 20,000 tonnes a month, thecompany said Monday. The kimberlite ore will be processed at a nearby plant,which is currently being refurbished. In the six months ending December 31, the miner reported aloss of GBP 190,000 ($251,347). It...Read More
RAPAPORT... Global jewelry sales grew 4% to $85.9 billion in 2018 despite a weaker second half, according to market research Russian miner Alrosareleased. The growth was slower than the 5% increase Alrosa reported for the previous year. North American sales grew 4% in 2018, with the region accounting for more than half ofoverall revenue, the company said Monday. In the first half of the year...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem and jewelry exhibitors gave mixed responses tochanges at the struggling Baselworld show, with many stillundecided as to whether they would return to the trade fair.Visitor traffic was relatively light throughout thesix-day event, which ends Tuesday, with Saturday and Sunday seeing the strongest activity.Attendance was so sparse in the gem halls that someexhibitors tried to poa...Read More
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and the Alibaba Group are selling Antwerp-sourced diamonds in an online flagship store called "Shape of Antwerp" Tmall. As the world's second-largest market for polished diamonds, China is generating tremendous opportunities for the diamond consumer market as a whole. T-Mall, Alibaba's B2C marketplace, reportedly is the largest B2C platform in Ch...Read More
Alrosa, a world leader in diamond mining, reported that global sales of diamond jewelry had grown four percent 2018 compared to the previous year, reaching $85.9 billion. In 2017, the global jewelry market grew with five percent, compared to 2016. The firm said that the lower numbers for 2018 growth were a result "of a slowdown in key consumption markets in the second half of 2018." While in the f...Read More
Diamond Services, the Hong Kong-headquartered developer of technological systems and services for detecting treated diamonds, laboratory grown diamonds (LGDs) and simulants is introducing a new device which widens the range of detectable merchandise to include all rough and polished stones in the lower yellowish-to-light-brown colour ranges. Like other detection apparatus developed by Diamond Ser...Read More
South Australian drilling company Marmota Limited has identified new gold deposits in Goshawk territory and outside the discovery zone based on the biogeochemical testing of tree leaves for minerals. Recent results surrounding a December assay test at the Aurora Tank in the far north of South Australia has yielded levels of high-grade gold intersections - 88 grams per tonne of gold in existing are...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gemfields slid into the red in 2018 due to the impact of a new tax regime and a costly legal case, it said Monday.The company reported a loss of $60.4 million for the year, compared with a profit of $45.1 million the previous year. In 2018, the Zambian government introduced a 15% tax levy that required Gemfields to have its Kagem emerald mine revalued. This contributed to a $26.6...Read More
RAPAPORT... Global sales of diamond jewelry grew 4% to $85.9 billion in 2018 despite a weaker second half, according to market research Russian miner Alrosareleased. The growth was slower than the 5% increase Alrosa reported for the previous year. North American sales grew 4% in 2018, with the region accounting for more than half ofoverall revenue, the company said Monday. In the first half...Read More
Arctic Star Exploration of Vancouver has begun this year's exploration program at the 40% owned Diagras joint venture diamond property near Lac des Gras, NWT. Margaret Lake Diamonds holds the remaining 60% and is the project operator.The Diagras property covers 22,595 hectares with a total of 23 known kimberlites on trend with the Diavik mine. This year's work will include gravity, magnetic and el...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamond resources at Lucapa Diamond Company's Lulo alluvial mine in Lesotho are90% higher than it originally estimated, according to an independent valuation. Lulo has 80,400 carats remaining in the mine, according to a December 2018 study by external consulting company Z Star Mineral ResourceConsultants. That figure was reevaluated from a previous Lulo resource estimation conduct...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's newest mine could become one of the company's richest sources of large rough diamonds, recent testing has found. The Russia-based miner conducted experimentation, between March 11 to 15, at apreviously untested portion of the Zapolyarnaya pipe, located at its Verkhne-Munskoye deposit. The purpose of the testing was to determine thequantity, color, grade and per-carat...Read More