RAPAPORT... Mountain Province recorded its largest open-market sale to date as rough-diamond demand returned ahead of the holiday season.The miner sold 559,528 carats for $34.3 million at last month's tender in Antwerp, averaging $61 per carat, the company reported Monday. The event, which closed October 30, was only its second commercial sale since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic."The int...Read More

RAPAPORT... Watches of Switzerland has hired Kelly Yoch as director of client relations, a new position for the company, it said Monday.Yoch, who was most recently the senior North American consultant for Patek Philippe watches at Tiffany & Co., also served as the head of fine jewelry at Saks Fifth Avenue, and as the general manager of luxury-watch label Tourneau. She will be responsible for d...Read More

RAPAPORT... Chow Tai Fook is launching its own diamond certificates based on artificial intelligence, using a new grading scale featuring numbers instead of letters.The Chow Tai Fook AI Diamond Grading Certificate will be available for stones weighing 0.30 carats or less through T Mark, the retailer's diamond brand focused on traceability, the company said Monday. The reports - which it devel...Read More

RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, November 3, 2020, Las Vegas... The diamond market continued to improve in October as holiday orders picked up. Supply shortages helped buoy prices of 1-carat and larger stones. However, the positive sentiment of the previous month weakened due to a rise in global Covid-19 cases and uncertainty surrounding the US election. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat poli...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe have moved up on Tuesday November 3, supported by long lead times for delivery of the material, market sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?505.96 ($588.80) per tonne on Tuesday, up by ?,?0.96 per tonne from ?,?505.00 per tonne.The index was up by ?,?7....Read More

(IDEX Online) - Lightbox, the lab-grown division of De Beers, has opened a vast factory in the USA that will allow it to produce 200,000 carats a year.It has also announced that its lab-grown diamonds will be sold as fashion jewlery by the online retailer Blue Nile -  the first time it has sold lab-growns - as well as on Lighbox's own website.Lightbox's manufacturing operation (pict...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Surat's bourse has seen business boom, as it picked up export trade from its closed counterpart in Mumbai.Half-year exports to October were up more than 700 per cent to $832m said the Surat Hira Bourse (SHB), the city's only customs clearance centre for diamond, jewelry, gold and other precious cargo.By comparison total export for the financial year 2019-20 were $190m.Mum...Read More

CIS steel billet producers have continued to offer material to foreign customers at rather high prices, with support from the global uptrend in the long steel markets, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday November 3.In any case, the producers were in no hurry to sell-out volumes scheduled for shipment in January.For their part, customers in the majority of export destinations considered the current offers...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The iconic Argyle mine, producer of 90 per cent of the world's pink diamonds, closes today after 37 years.Owners Rio Tinto say the deposit, in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region, is no longer economically viable, despite the high prices commanded by its super-rare stones.The country's only operational diamond mine produced 865 million carats over its lifetim...Read More

Chilean copper production was 0.8% lower year on year in September due to lower output from Escondida, the country's copper commission, Cochilco, said on Tuesday November 3. Mined copper content output totaled 479,900 tonnes in September, against 483,800 tonnes a year before, according to Cochilco's data. The country produced 4.26 million tonnes of copper in the January-September period, slightly...Read More

Premiums for primary aluminium in Italy and Spain remained on an upward trajectory this week despite benchmark premiums in Rotterdam moving the opposite way. The divergence means the differential between Fastmarkets' P1020 premiums in Rotterdam and Italy is at its widest since 2018. Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium P1020A premium, fca dp Italy at $190-195 per tonne on Tuesday November 3, up...Read More

Chile's state-run copper producer Codelco increased its production in the third quarter of 2020 despite setbacks due to temporary closures of some of its operations, reduced costs and higher earnings during that period, the company said on Friday October 30.Codelco produced 447,000 tonnes of copper in the quarter, including a minority share in some units, up by 1.6% from 440,000 tonnes in the thir...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has approved the resignation of French bank Soci?(C)t?(C) G?(C)n?(C)rale from its Category II and LMEprecious membership structure, outlining in a note to members on Tuesday November 3 that the entity will no longer trade as a general clearing member of LMEClear with immediate effect. Soci?(C)t?(C) G?(C)n?(C)rale, also known as SocGen, began a refinement of its commodity...Read More

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher during morning trading on Tuesday November 3, prompted by a slight decline in the dollar index and hopes of fiscal stimulus in the United States after today's long-awaited presidential election. Trading volumes were moderate over the morning, with LME aluminium's 5,500 lots topping the complex as of 10:30am London time;...Read More

Vale Canada has cut 154 jobs at its Thompson, Manitoba nickel operation, which was losing about C$300,000 ($225,700) a day, a company spokesman told Fastmarkets.Vale has for years been restructuring its operations in the subarctic Canadian province, having closed the Manitoba nickel smelter and refinery in July 2018, but retained the two mines and milling activities."The steps taken were completed...Read More

Scoped for growth: Nevada Copper shifts into production modeSPONSOREDnevada copper corp.Copper and sugar bans are set to be initiated next week, according to a news report by the South China Morning Post.Read More

German steelmaker Salzgitter will record a significant pre-tax loss in 2020 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said on Tuesday November 3.In its preliminary report for the first nine months of the year, Salzgitter said that only a rough estimate was possible in the current circumstances.In its half-year report published in August, the company said that it expected its pre-tax...Read More

Scoped for growth: Nevada Copper shifts into production modeSPONSOREDnevada copper corp.The Kazakhstan-focused operator has been on a rollercoaster ride since it listed on the LSE at £5.Read More

Domestic rebar prices in the United Arab Emirates continued to fall this week, while imported rebar prices were stable, sources said on Tuesday November 3.Domestic rebarThe country's steel producers were offering rebar at 1,936 dirhams ($527) per tonne ex-works for orders to be produced in November, stable since September 15.But deal prices were at around 1,790-1,800 dirhams per tonne ex-works, wi...Read More

Genesis opens new chapter at UlyssesSPONSOREDgenesis mineralsPantoro bullish on bigger production profileSPONSOREDpantoro limitedRamelius now among WA gold frontrunnersSPONSOREDramelius resourcesAgile Mining - The Future is Smaller. Bigger is not always betterSPONSOREDproudfootThe company completed 2,172m of development in high-grade ore during October, the most in a single month to date, which re...Read More