(IDEX Online) - Pope Francis yesterday told crowds in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) how the "poison of greed" had smeared its diamonds with blood.In a hard-hitting speech he condemned the "economic colonialism" of those who had plundered its natural resources.And he described the country's ongoing conflict with neighboring Rwanda as a "forgotten genocide".At the start of a four-day v...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers today reported $450m of rough sales during its first cycle of 2023, down over 30 per cent on 2022.That's despite reports that larger stones (+2.0-cts) were discounted by as much as 10 per cent, and a relaxation in its buyback terms - allowing sightholders to reject 20 per cent of goods over one carat from a parcel, rather than the standard 10 per cent. The UK-bas...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Round prices fell yet again during January amid continued hesitancy in the markets, although fancies fared much better. Overall demand remains slow, sentiment is weak, and manufacturing in India is still well below full capacity. Estimates for the number of workers laid off in Surat vary between 10,000 and 20,000. China scrapped its zero-COVID policy in December, which has fre...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Indian government today announced an immediate abolition of the five per cent import levy on the graphite seeds used to create lab grown diamonds.The move is seen as a major boost to India's small but growing lab grown sector, and follows the announcement last August that the State Bank of India (SBI) would, for the first time, provide loans for manufacturers to buy the ma...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Zimbabwe aims to produce 10m carats of rough diamonds this year - which would double its 2022 output.But the figure is at odds with an estimate of 7m carats made by Winston Chitando, the mines and mining development minister, last November.The 10m forecast was given over the weekend by Polite Kambamura, mines and mining development deputy minister.He said there was a lot of investm...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Angola exported 8.75m carats last year, well down on its original forecast of 13.8m.But total revenue was $1.95bn, the Ministry for Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas said, an increase of almost a quarter on $1.5bn in 2021.In January 2022 Angola revised down its forecast output for the year by almost a third to 10.5m carats.Diamantino de Azevedo, Angola's minister for mineral reso...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A court in India has ruled that the government should pay the widow of an informant in full for a tip-off that led to Customs officials seizing smuggled diamonds.Chandrakant Dhavre provided specific information in 1991 about a consignment of diamonds, mostly polished, worth over $110,000 (90 lakh rupees at today's exchange rate).He received two payments as part of his reward i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The US jewelry sector is shrinking, according to the latest listings of retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers by JBT (Jewelers Board of Trade).The number of manufacturers in Q4 2022 was 2,412, down 3.1 per cent on the same quarter in 2021. Retailers fell 2.4 percent from 19,320 to 18,855 and the number of wholesalers fell 1.6 per cent from 3,687 to 3,629.The majority of the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Police in the US are hunting a raider who pepper-sprayed a female staff member during a raid on the jewelry counter at a Kohl's department store.The suspect was caught on surveillance footage smashing a display case with a hammer and stealing wedding rings valued at $80,000.The worker was injured by the pepper spray , but no further details of her condition were given.The susp...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Belgium's prime minister has again said opposes an EU ban on Russian diamonds, calling instead for a global boycott.Alexander De Croo (pictured) was speaking as the 27 EU members prepared to implement a 10th round of sanctions.He said the only effective way to stem the ongoing flow of Alrosa's goods would be if all Western nations signed up to a ban, backed by a watertigh...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province reported a 20 per cent drop in total proceeds for FY 2022 after a "very challenging start to the year".The Canadian miner sold fewer carats - down from 3.16m in 2021 to 2.66m - but average prices per carat were up a third from US$75 to US$112.Q4 sales for 2022 were US$71.3m, up from US$67.5m for Q4 of 2021. In Q3 of 2022 sales hit $81m - the highest quarterly figu...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A collection of "space diamonds" have landed, after an 18 million mile journey orbiting Earth.The first-ever batch of diamonds a NASA mission will be numbered, laser engraved and documented by the American Gem Society Laboratory as having been in space.The gems - a mix of mined and lab growns - blasted off on Elon Musk's SpaceX-26 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A digital supplement to GIA grading reports has been launched as part of its "strategic collaboration" with the AGS.The two grading labs announced last October that the AGS Laboratories, research staff, intellectual property, technology and Las Vegas facility would be integrated into GIA.The AGS supplement to GIA diamond reports will be available for D-to-Z natural and lab grown ro...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Three workers at a gold mine in Kenya were killed in a blast caused by illegal miners.Six other employees at the Karebe mine, the Northern Rift Valley region, were seriously injured in the explosion on Monday.The workers who died were deep underground at the time of the blast."Our staff were instantly killed when a wall built to prevent the mine against flooding and illegal i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US consumers are set to spend $5.5bn on jewelry as they splash out on a record Valentine's Day, according to the NRF (National Retail Federation).That will account for just over a fifth (21 per cent) of the forecast $25.9bn, it says in its Prosper Insights & Analytics issued yesterday. Total Valentine's spending in 2021 was $23.9 bn.Top gifts are forecast to include c...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Talented Wang Xuerui beat over 1,500 jewelry designers to win first prize in HRD Antwerp's 18th Design Awards. Her piece, called Mutualistic, was described as "a stunning work that symbolizes peace at the core of its design". Judges at the Vicenzaoro boutique jewelry show, in Italy, were looking for storytelling, technical skills and the ability to translate them into the des...Read More
(IDEX Online) - BlueRock Diamonds has again been forced to suspend work at its Kareevlei mine, in Kimberley, South Africa, over breaches of the Mines Health and Safety act.The UK-based miner said most of the contraventions related to its processing plant. It did not provide details, but was adamant that they did not put workers at risk."Management is of the opinion that the instruction to suspend...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The UK miner Vast Resources says it has made encouraging progress towards the release of a parcel of 129,400 carats of rough diamonds that have been held at Zimbabwe's central bank since 2009. It began formal proceedings at the High Court of Zimbabwe last December and said in a statement that it was "encouraged that material progress on the outcome of this legal action...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Hammer-wielding raiders fled with $2m of jewelry after smashing display cases of diamond engagement rings at a store in Brooklyn, New York.They threatened to shoot a worker - although no gun was seen. Staff and customers were physically unhurt, but were traumatized.Irina Sulay, owner of Facets Fine Jewelry, in Park Slope, buzzed one man in and two others followed."He reached i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Indian jeweler Tanishq has opened its first stores in the US and Abu Dhabi.It says it is planning further outlets as it expands beyond the 400-plus stores it currently operates at home.The first US store is in Iselin, New Jersey. Tanishq, a subsidiary of the massive Tata conglomerate, already had six stores in the UAE and now has one in he capital.It says it plans to open as many a...Read More