RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) that comes with a real piece of jewelry, targeting an exclusive group of digital collectors."NFTiffs" will be available solely to owners of CryptoPunks, a set of valuable NFTs comprising randomly generated pixelated portraits, Tiffany said Sunday in a Twitter post.The retailer will offer 250 digital passes priced at 30 Ethe...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co is selling limited edition pendants to owners of CryptoPunks - a set of 10,000 unique and collectible Ethereum blockchain characters.The jeweler says it's taking NFTs (non fungible tokens) to "the next level" by creating NFTiffs, or replicas of the virtual CryptoPunk designs.Each one will have at least 30 stones, among them diamonds and colored gemstones...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, August 2, 2022, Las Vegas... Diamond trading slowed in July as US dealers closed for the two-week summer break. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty fueled caution, leading to a decline in polished prices. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat goods fell 2.6% during July but remained 4.6% higher than at the beginning of the year. RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?)...Read More
RAPAPORT... Hong Kong's hard-luxury sales grew at a more moderate pace in June as the health situation deteriorated and interest rates climbed.Sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts rose 2.3% year on year to HKD 3.39 billion ($431.2 million) for the month, the municipality's Census and Statistics Department reported Tuesday. While sales increased, June's figure is well below May's 8%...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Fancy color diamonds prices rose by an average of 0.8 per cent in the last quarter.That's a slowdown on the previous three months (1.0 per cent Q1 2022), but still puts them way ahead of other global indices, says the New York-based Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF). In Q2 2022 it says the Dow Jones was down 11.3 per cent, the S&P down 16.4 per cent, gold d...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A jeweler in the US has been jailed for more than 12 years after pleading guilty to an investment scam involving a 77-carat "Yellow Rose" diamond.Joseph DuMouchelle, 61, persuaded a client to make a wire transfer to the seller's account for $12m, claiming he could sell it on for $16m.But the money went into his own account and he promptly withdrew it to pay off personal and bu...Read More
RAPAPORT... A 21.13-carat diamond ring will lead Leonard Joel's upcoming Important Jewels auction, where it is expected to fetch up to AUD 900,000 ($620,362).The cut-cornered square modified brilliant-cut, K-color, SI2-clarity diamond ring is one of a number of large stones that will feature in the August 16 sale in Sydney, Australia. The auction could garner as much as AUD 8.6 million ($5.9 milli...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company's revenue fell 36% year on year to $21.8 million in the second quarter, reflecting an unfavorable comparison with last year's sales surge. A year earlier, the miner held a special tender of seven large, high-value rough stones from the Lulo deposit in Angola, it explained Thursday.In addition, the company saw a decline in polished revenues resulting from man...Read More
(IDEX Online) - There were more losses again in July, especially among rounds, as the war continues in Ukraine. A more mixed picture for fancies. The only clear upward trend is among larger 'investment type' stones of 4.0-cts to 5.0-cts, which is typical when financial markets are weak and investors seek greater stability.HIGHLIGHTED CHANGES Rounds0.90-0.99 ct. D-H / VVS2-...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A villager collecting firewood in India stumbled on a 4.39-carat rough diamond valued at $25,000.Genda Bai, 45, was working in forest in Purusottampur, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, when she made the find.It's an area where informal diggers routinely pay for the right to dig a small patch of land in search of diamonds - but simply finding a diamond lying on the groun...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales and earnings at Indian diamond manufacturer Asian Star rose sharply in the first fiscal quarter, reflecting the market's solid rebound.Group revenue, including at subsidiaries, jumped 45% year on year to INR 12.58 billion ($159.3 million) for the three months that ended June 30, the Mumbai-based company reported Friday. Profit increased 4% to INR 216.2 million ($2.7 million)...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A plaque honoring De Beers founder Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University has been given government protection.The plaque is located yards from the statue that prompted the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Critics accuse the diamond magnate, who died in 1902, of being a racist, a white supremacist and the father of apartheid, and have called for his statue to be removed.It's the latest t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Four new directors will join the board of Jewelers of America (JA) for a three-year term.The directors were elected at JA's annual general meeting (AGM) on July 21, the organization said last week. The board of directors represents the fine-jewelry marketplace and advises the JA on strategic direction."I know [the four new directors] will be committed to serving Jewelers of America's m...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An extremely rare type of diamond has been discovered in Australia - but it will be of more interest to geologists than the gem industry.The "metamorphic diamonds" are invisible to the naked eye and can only be viewed with a laser and a microscope.Researchers from James Cook University, in Queensland, found them in rocks along the Clarke River Fault, west of Paluma in the north of...Read More
(IDEX Online) - North Arrow Minerals reports "encouraging" results in its search for high-value fancy yellow to orange yellow diamonds in Canada's Arctic Archipelago.More than one in 10 of the diamonds bulk sampled last year from the Q1-4 kimberlite at the Naujaat Diamond Project are fancy color, it said.Of those, 90 per cent are orange and 30 per cent are classified as either "intense" or "v...Read More
RAPAPORT... Revenue and profit from Rio Tinto's diamond division soared in the first half of the year as demand strengthened and manufacturers replenished inventory.The unit recorded underlying earnings of $91 million for the six months ending June 30, the miner said last week. That compared with $5 million a year earlier, when the economy was only beginning its recovery from the pandemic. Re...Read More
RAPAPORT... US polished-diamond imports increased 40% year on year to $2.2 billion in May, according to recent data from the country's Department of Commerce. The month is usually one of the busiest for shipments, as companies send goods to America in preparation for the JCK Las Vegas show in early June.US Trade Data for May 2022 Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. cofounder Lukas Lundin died last week at the age of 64 following a two-year battle with brain cancer.Lundin started his career in the early 1980s in the international energy and mining sectors, working with his father at the Lundin Group of Companies. The business, which comprises 11 firms internationally, employs more than 15,000 people and has a combined market c...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) will return to Dubai after an absence of around two years, launching a laboratory in one of the emirate's newest skyscrapers.The GIA offices are scheduled to open in mid-2023, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) said last week. Local subsidiary GIA Laboratory DMCC will lease more than 41,000 square feet across two floors of Dubai's...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Anglo American, parent company of De Beers, announced a slump in revenue and profits for the first half of 2022, as it struggled with Covid-related absenteeism, disrupted supply chains, weather extremes and economic volatility.The British diversified miner saw pre-tax profits fall by 33 per cent to $6.80bn and revenue down 17 per cent to $18.11bn.It faced "considerable challe...Read More