Sanctioned Russian diamond miner Alrosa has concluded the purchase of a gold mine in the far east of the country and will invest $276m developing it.
The move comes seven months after the G7 and EU countries introduced the first phase of restrictions on the import of Russian diamonds.
Alrosa’s subsidiary, Almazy Anabara company, has bought 100 per cent of the Degdekan gold ore field in the Magadan region, according to a report by Russia’s Interfax news agency, from Polyus the country’s largest gold producer (also sanctioned).
Alrosa, the state-run miner, already has some gold mining operations, with an output of around 180kg annually.
But this marks a significant expansion, with the projected production of 3.3 tons from 2030.
In 2015 Russia’s State Reserves Commission said the deposit had reserves of 38.3 tonnes of gold.
“The development of the gold deposit will provide an additional synergistic effect for Alrosa’s business and will help increase its financial stability in the long term,” Alrosa CEO Pavel Marinychev said in a statement.
Alrosa sold $4bn of diamonds globally in 2022. The G7 nations, which are now blacklisting its diamonds, account for 70 per cent of diamond purchases worldwide.
Police in Surat, India, are investigating an alleged switch, in which a “buyer” replaced a 10.08-carat natural diamond, valued at $545,000, with a near-worthless lab grown replica.
The “buyer” examined the heart-shaped D / VVS2 stone and its GIA certificate, agreed terms and put down a $12,000 down payment to secure the purchase.
He left, saying he needed to withdraw money – and has not been seen since.
The owner of the diamond soon realized he’d been left with a lab grown replica of identical shape, color and weight, but worth less than $2,000.
Police say they are pursuing the “buyer” and at least two accomplices, according to a report in the Economic Times.
In the first five months of the year, imports of Russian diamonds to Hong Kong increased 18-fold year on year, according to data from Hong Kong’s Statistics Bureau published on its official website on June 30.
Hong Kong has dramatically stepped its imports of diamonds from Russia, purchasing $657.3mn worth of Russian diamonds in the first five months of 2024.
In the period from January to May 2024, Hong Kong’s imports of Russian diamonds soared from $36.5mn a year earlier to $657.3mn. As a result, Russia has become the third-largest supplier of diamonds to Hong Kong, with its share of total diamond imports rising to 12% from just 1% in 2023.
India remains the leading supplier of diamonds to Hong Kong, with imports valued at $2.9bn, followed by Israel with $716.6mn. Notably, both India and Israel, unlike Russia, do not mine diamonds themselves.
The substantial increase in Hong Kong’s diamond imports from Russia highlights a significant shift in the global diamond market. Dubai has also become a major market for the trade in Russian diamonds.
As bne IntelliNews reported, the EU included sanctions on Russian diamond exports as part of the twelfth sanctions package, but due to intensive lobbying by Belgium, where Antwerp is the leading European diamond market and the number-one destination for rough diamonds from Russian miner Alrosa, the sanctions were watered down and will be phased in gradually.
Russian diamond sanctions watered down again
Afraid of losing the diamond business completely to the growing rival markets in Asia and the Middle East, the EU has watered down the restrictions on trading Russian diamonds again last week.
The EU has extended the “sunrise period” for sanctions on Russian diamonds by six months and included an important concession for goods that predate the new rules, according to a statement released by the EU on June 24.
The EU also said the update “fine-tunes” the import ban on Russian diamonds included in the twelfth package and is included as part of the fourteenth sanctions package. Earlier in June, De Beers called for a one-year extension to the sunrise period for the G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds, but it is up to the individual countries to rule on the implementation of the ban.
The mandatory traceability programme for imports of rough and polished natural diamonds will now take effect on March 1, 2025 instead of September 1, 2024. This extension is intended “to allow more time to set up the G7 traceability scheme,” the EU explained reports Rapport.
This decision comes in response to calls from diamond trading powerhouse De Beers and other industry leaders to extend the interim period during which importers can use alternative documentation to prove that diamonds are not of Russian origin. Once this period ends, importers into the EU must use a traceability-based certification scheme to verify imports of diamonds over 0.50 carats.
Additionally, the EU has introduced a “grandfathering” clause to exempt diamonds that were already located in the EU or a third country other than Russia – or were manufactured in a third country – before the new rules were implemented. The EU ban on direct imports of diamonds from Russia began on January 1, 2024, while the ban on goods processed outside Russia started on March 1, 2024.
The EU said that these pre-existing diamonds no longer provide revenue to Russia.
“We are extremely pleased that, after months of intense negotiations, we have succeeded in pushing the needle to allow regularisation of so-called ‘grandfathered stock,’” said the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). “Sanctioning these goods and prohibiting their trade would impose an unfair and severe financial burden on diamond companies without significantly impacting Russia’s revenues.”
The extension and concession aim to balance the need for stringent sanctions with the “practical realities of the diamond industry,” providing additional time and clarity for businesses to adapt to the new regulations.
Moreover, temporary imports or exports of jewellery, for example for trade fairs or repairs, will not fall under the ban. In addition, the EU has delayed the prohibition on jewellery incorporating Russian diamonds processed in third countries until the European Council, the EU’s executive arm, “decides to activate” it, the EU statement said.
The US currently has the strictest limits on Russian trade, requiring self-certification for diamonds of 1 carat or lower, falling to 0.50 carats on September 1. Larger diamonds are not covered by the sanctions.
Botswana’s economy contracted by the most since the peak of the pandemic in early 2020, after diamond production plunged.
Gross domestic product shrank an annual 5.3% in the first quarter, compared with growth of 1.9% in the prior three months.
The downturn was primarily influenced by a decrease in real value added of the diamond traders and mining & quarrying industries of 46.8% and 24.8% respectively, Statistics Botswana said in a report Friday.
Botswana is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by value, with the revenues making up the bulk of the southern African country’s budget receipts. The decline is likely to make meeting its fiscal targets for this year difficult. The central bank already warned last week that the government would probably miss its economic growth forecast of 4.2% because of weaker mining output.
The global diamond industry almost came to a standstill in the second half of last year as De Beers and Russia’s Alrosa PJSC — the two biggest miners — all but stopped supplies in a desperate attempt to stem a slump in prices. That hit earnings at De Beers, which mines more than three-quarters of its diamonds in Botswana.
Earlier this year De Beers said it expects any recovery in the beleaguered diamond market to be slow and gradual as the industry continues to suffer from weak economic growth in key markets such as China and the US.
Petra Diamonds revised on Thursday its guidance for the next two fiscal years and appointed a new finance leader as part of its plans to lower expenses and debt in a clear sign the diamond market remains in bad shape.
The South African miner had anticipated in December that the sector was beginning to recover. Six months later, Petra has instead cut its production targets. It now expects to produce between 2.8 million and 3.1 million carats in fiscal 2025 and between 2.9 million and 3.3 million in fiscal 2026. This represents a reduction of 18% and 19%, respectively, on the prior target-ranges’ midpoint.
The company also said it expected total carat recovery to be at the lower end of its target range of 2.74 million to 2.78 million for the current fiscal year.
These downgrades, announced in an investor day presentation, coincide with Petra’s plan to reduce operating costs by $30 million annually starting in the fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2025. Total capital spending will be reduced this year to $100 million from the total spent in 2023, which was $117.1 million.
“We have worked hard to deliver an updated business profile in response to ongoing market challenges and to further enhance our resilience to future market and capital cycles,” chief executive Richard Duffy said in a statement.
Petra’s revisions come just a day after the world’s largest diamond producer by value, De Beers, posted disappointing results for its latest sales for the second time this year, and as Anglo American (LON: AAL) plans to sell it off.
New CFO
Petra announced it had appointed Johan Snyman to take on the role of chief financial officer starting from October 1. Snyman will replace Jacques Breytenbach, who will leave his position as CFO and director at the end of September due to personal reasons.
“[Snyman] has played a crucial part in the progress of Petra since joining in January, and I am excited to collaborate with him in his new capacity,” Duffy said.
The new CFO joined Petra this year as financial controller, having worked as vice president for financial reporting at AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU). He has also previously held various financial roles in the mining sector.
Expansions unaffected
Despite the challenging market, Petra remains committed to expanding its Finsch and Cullinan mines in South Africa, it said, and it is projecting production to reach between 3.4 to 3.7 million carats by 2028.
Cullinan is Petra’s flagship mine and the source iconic diamonds, including the famed 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, which was cut to form the 530-carat Great Star of Africa. They are the two largest diamonds in the British Crown Jewels.
The Cullinan mine is also a source of rare blue diamonds.
Petra’s planned output increase, equivalent to 15% to 17% over three years, will require about $100 million annually. Duffy stated the plans will be financed internally.
Cullinan mine-life can be potentially extended beyond 2048. Finsch, South Africa’s second largest diamond operation by output, could be producing until around 2038.
Shares in Petra experienced high volatility in London after the announcements and were last down 1.96% to 40 pence. This leaves the miner with a total market capitalization of £78.63 million (about $100m).
Naturally fluorescing rough diamond parcel from the Gahcho Kué mine. Credit: Mountain Province Diamonds
De Beers Group and Mountain Province Diamonds announced that their joint venture Gahcho Kué diamond mine has surpassed the C$2 billion spending threshold with Northwest Territories and Indigenous business.
The milestone represents 61% of the total C$3.2 billion spent on the project since 2015 when construction began. Local businesses supply welding, transportation logistics, trucking, passenger and cargo flights, labour, and camp catering. The venture has a stated goal of sourcing at least 60% of its requirements for the project from local businesses.
According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, diamond mining is the largest contributor to the territory’s gross domestic product – C$588 million out of C$4.25 billion in 2023.
Key elements of the economic contribution of the Gahcho Kué mine include:
Gahcho Kué has a tiered contracting structure that gives preference to Indigenous and NWT businesses. Since 2006, C$5.3 billion has been spent with local and Indigenous business in the Northwest Territories and northern Ontario by Gahcho Kué and De Beers Group’s wholly owned Snap Lake (NWT) and Victor (Ontario) mines. (Snap Lake and Victor are now in active closure). In 2023, 69% of the Gahcho Kué mine spend was with NWT and Indigenous companies, totalling C$228 million, the highest amount spent with NWT businesses since construction. In 2023, C$90 million was spent with companies operated by the mine’s impact benefit agreement (IBA) communities. From 2006 to 2023, Gahcho Kué and Snap Lake mines have contributed a combined C$26.5 million in social investment within the NWT. Gahcho Kué has also made significant payments to Indigenous communities in terms of six IBAs and has paid resource royalties to the government of the NWT. Gahcho Kué was officially opened in 2016 and now provides 663 full-time equivalent jobs, including 245 jobs held by NWT residents.
The mine is located about 280 km northeast of Yellowknife, NWT, on the traditional territories of Tlicho, Dene and Metis peoples. De Beers is the 51% owner and operator. Mountain Province retains the remaining 49%.
In 2023 the project mined 3.3 million tonnes of kimberlite and recovered nearly 5.6 million carats (on a 100% basis). Guidance for 2024 is 4.2 million to 4.7 million carats.
Lucapa today (25 June) announced the sale of its 70 per cent stake in the Mothae mine, in Lesotho, to a local contractor for a nominal sum.
The Australian miner said it wanted to to focus on its core assets in Africa, where it has a 40 per cent stake in the Lulo alluvial mine, in Angola, and in Australia.
Mothae has produced over 150,000 carats since it started commercial production in 2019, bringing in more than $100m in revenue.
Lucapa says it will sell its stake in stake in Mothae Diamonds (Pty) Ltd to Lephema Executive Transport (Pty) Ltd, which has provided it with long-term contract mining services, for A$10,000 (US$6,660).
Mothae Diamonds, which owns the site, will pay Lucapa A$1m (US$666,000) in outstanding technical services payments.
“This agreement is the result of a period of offer and negotiation involving Lucapa and several interested parties,” said Lucapa managing director and CEO Nick Selby.
“(Lephema) Executive has a successful history with the Mothae Diamond Mine, having provided long-term contract mining services. Lucapa wanted to, as far as possible, see
this mine continue to operate and Executive are best placed to achieve this.
“The signing of this agreement is a key step towards Lucapa streamlining its portfolio and executing the new strategy which will focus on assets in Australia and Angola”.
Mothae has indicated resources of 180,000 carats and inferred resources of 960,000 carats, according to December 2023 figures provided by Lucapa, with a modelled per carat value of $606.
Lucapa said in its sales material that Mothae has recovered 13 +100ct diamonds (largest Type IIa gem 213cts), and 10 diamonds valued at over $1m.
Michael Moszynski, founder and chief executive of LONDON Advertising and an experienced investor, was introduced to Mr Dominguez by a fellow investor in a separate business.
He explained Mr Dominguez’s reputation – being an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, tipped by Forbes magazine, with the backing of high-profile investors – made Vashi an attractive proposition.
The senior management team also included figures with strong track records in retail, which gave him confidence. Audited accounts suggested it had healthy assets and revenue.
“I went to see their store and they were just about to open this amazing shop in Covent Garden. It all looked really strong,” Mr Moszynski said.
“The quality of the investors was reassuring and everyone thought everyone else had done their due diligence. Some of the investors who lost their money were top names in British entrepreneurship.”
A Middle East investor, who has a background in the retail business and spoke anonymously, told The National he was attracted by Vashi’s approach which “had a lot of merit to it”.
He was impressed by the “brazenness” of stores in high-profile locations in central London.
“I was invited to the opening of the Covent Garden one and they walked us around, and it was busy and buzzing,” he said.
He put together a consortium, which included friends, family and his employers, spread across the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, to invest in Vashi.
The consensus was that if investment went wrong “at least we had the diamonds”, he said. “That was the insurance policy.”
He feels “taken in” by Vashi’s story.
“I’m involved in many companies that haven’t made it. They fail, but they fail on their merits,” said one frustrated investor from the Middle East, who wished to remain anonymous. “This feels different.”
Mr Moszynski said the fact the company was raising capital on the back of its diamonds, confirmed by auditors, convinced him to invest.
“That was a major, major reason why investors put in money. They felt even if the business wasn’t successful, the liquidation of the assets would offset the investment,” he said.
“But we investors discovered that there was no stock when we heard that the liquidators had opened the safe and it was bare.”
Vashi’s vision Mr Dominguez was born to a Spanish mother and Indian father on the island of Tenerife.
His insurance broker parents sent their only child to a private school and he went on to study law.
He dropped out, becoming a salesman at an electronics store and in the process finding his passion for business.
Mr Dominguez opened his own shop in 1998, then set himself up as a wholesale supplier of electronics to the Canary Islands, travelling to Hong Kong to deal directly with manufacturers.
Tiring of electronics, he decided to turn a childhood fascination with diamonds into a moneymaking venture.
Meteoric rise It’s a difficult business to break into, but after 100 meetings over nine months he managed to find a gems supplier in Mumbai and he was on his way.
After first selling them wholesale in his native Spain, he decided it would be more beneficial to market them online directly to customers.
Mr Dominguez moved his business to London in 2007, setting up its headquarters in the Hatton Garden diamond district. His company Diamond Manufacturers Ltd rebranded to begin trading in his own name, Vashi, and in 2009 his website was up and running.
He opened his first bricks and mortar store in the upmarket Mayfair district of the UK capital.
This led to media coverage and the regular slot on This Morning giving tips about buying precious gems.
Buoyed by his initial success and enhanced profile, he set out his vision for conquering the jewellery world, aimed at luring millennial and Gen Z customers to “iconic destination stores”, stocked with ethically-sourced diamonds.
He expanded to three more stores, with the flagship a dazzling 4,476-square-foot presence in Covent Garden. Each of them dovetailed with a bespoke online service.
Rather than intimidating destinations only for the super-rich, these would be “friendly and accessible”, with in-house workshops visible from the street that would tailor-make jewellery to embrace “the fundamental emotions of the wearer”.
Material for investors showed young photogenic customers, smiling as they engage in the diamond ring-buying “experience”.
John Ames joined Vashi as chief technology officer in July 2021 and his first impressions of Mr Dominguez were positive.
“He was a big man – imposing and tall. He was impressive,” Mr Ames told The National.
“He turned up to the meeting with a £60,000 gold watch on his wrist and he spoke eloquently about his vision.”
Meanwhile, Mr Dominguez was a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, while Forbes magazine predicted Vashi would be among the UK’s next “unicorns” – a privately owned start-up company valued at over $1 billion.
The company recorded apparently dramatic increases in sales. A trading update issued in May 2021 stated that sales were up 385 per cent from the year before, when the UK was in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Dominguez laid out plans for expansion into the US, saying the $300 billion jewellery industry was “ready to be disrupted”.
“Within five years, we expect to join one of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerates, and we will begin our global roll-out thereafter,” the company boasted.
A 2021 pitch seeking £75 million from investors set out a bold plan to use the capital to fit out New York stores and also to buy £50 million worth of stock.
The New York stores were to be on Fifth Avenue and in SoHo, where its premises were to be opposite Tiffany & Co and adjacent to Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Apple.
Vashi’s chief financial officer, Charles Leach, emailed potential investors to say the company was valued at £250 million with fixed assets in the form of loose polished diamonds and metal worth up to £200 million.
The unravelling Mr Ames, the chief technology officer, suspected all was not right when suppliers began seeking overdue payments.
By December 2021, he had reason to believe that the company was raising investment on the basis of sales figures he felt did not match reality.
Mr Ames was given an internal sales report, which showed the figures were around £5.4 million for 2020 and £5.09 million for 2021.
That contrasts with the last available public accounts filed with Companies House, which show that the company’s stated sales for the year ending 2020 were £53.63 million and 2021 £105.42 million.
The company made a pre-tax profit of £14.1 million in 2021, according to the filing for that year, up from £4.9 million the year before.
The accounts were signed off by Inger & Co, which operates out of a small office among shops in the East London suburb of Redbridge.
Mr Ames says when he challenged a fellow senior manager about the discrepancy, he was told the rest of the sales were made up of Mr Dominguez’s private sales to celebrities and other wealthy clients.
However, a presentation to investors states that revenue were split 62 per cent online and 38 per cent in stores. There was no mention of private sales.
It just “didn’t make any sense”, said Mr Ames.
From his conversations with Vashi employees involved in the purchase of precious metals and diamonds, Mr Ames understood those suppliers continued to chase the company for unpaid bills and were unwilling to allow the business to purchase on credit.
Other conversations, including with employees who worked in the stores, where diamonds were kept in safes, revealed that the necessary stock was not being bought.
He said he was “uncomfortable” with what was taking place.
Mr Ames began to raise concerns about a lack of internal governance and internal reporting but in January 2022 he was dismissed.
Former chief financial officer Mr Leach had by this stage put his own money into the company.
He told The National: “As an investor myself who lost a substantial sum, I relied like other investors on audited accounts, audited stock certificates and independent professional stock valuations.
“I was retained by the company as an external consultant, preparing investor forecasts from management accounts provided by the accountant, and communicating their vision to their investors.
“I never saw a bank statement or any internal sales or customer information. The business appeared to be a great British success story with an inspiring leader, and I put my heart into helping them tell their story.
“The sudden liquidation and the picture that emerged following it were a huge shock.”
Creditors, including diamond suppliers, had gradually lost patience, and court records show they were petitioning to have the company wound up from May 2022.
A former employee revealed on the Glassdoor employment website, which reviews companies, that staff were made to pretend to be customers in November 2022.
Other employees wrote on Glassdoor of unpaid salaries, pension contributions taken out of wages but not paid into pension funds, and having to lie to customers about their orders.
Meanwhile, furious customers complained about the shambolic service, with one saying Vashi had taken more than a year to replace a faulty ring.
The company was finally wound up in April 2023 after the Canary Wharf shopping centre, the landlords of one of its premises, and 19 other creditors, obtained a court order.
The liquidators say there are claims totalling £162 million from creditors, while staff are owed £2.5 million and the tax authorities £4.6 million.
Reflecting on his time at the company, Mr Ames said: “I hated the fact I was deceived. It made me very angry that other people were being recruited into it and deceived as well.
“They were young and very talented and they all believed in the concept and wanted to deliver on it.”
The person most able to answer questions about the company is of course Vashi Dominguez himself.
Efforts to contact him to seek a response to the allegations made have so far been unsuccessful. It is understood investors have also been trying to track him down.
At his last registered residential address in central London, a woman who answered the door when The National visited denied knowing who he was.
Mr Moszynski said he has now made a complaint to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office with a detailed dossier of evidence.
The SFO told The National its policy was to “neither confirm nor deny” whether it was looking at a case until it was officially announced but said criteria for investigating included “cases that involve millions of pounds”.
Russia is seeking to strengthen ties with Brazil, India, China, and South Africa and other BRICS countries in response to tighter sanctions on diamonds from the G7 and EU.
Setting an agenda for “equal and fair interaction between the parties involved in all segments of the global diamond trade” was the focus of a roundtable discussion at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum earlier this month.
Russia currently chairs BRICS (the initial letters of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Later additions are Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates).
“The only universal mechanism for regulating the global diamond trade, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), is being undermined by the attempts of numerous countries to introduce unilateral trade barriers,” said BRICS in a statement. Alrosa CEO Pavel Marinychev said: “New cooperation mechanisms will ensure the stability of the global diamond market and preserve the system of the free global trade of diamond products based on the core principles of the Kimberley Process.”
Russia warned back in November 2023 that sanctions on it diamonds would have a “boomerang” effect – harming the countries that imposed them more than Russia itself.
Nikolayev Aysen, head of Russia’s Yakutia republic, where state-controlled diamond miner Alrosa is based, told the BRICS audience: “Given the illegal unilateral restrictions that certain Western countries have imposed on Russian diamonds, it is crucial for us to support the efforts of ALROSA, which aim to diversify international supply markets. For example, this will make it possible to maintain the sustainable socioeconomic development of Yakutia.”
India’s exports of polished diamonds suffered a further drop in May, down by almost 15 per cent to $1.47bn.
But the year-on-year rate of decline shows some signs of slowing, according to new figures from the GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council).
It fell 20 per cent in January, 28 per cent in February, 27 per cent in March and 17 per cent in April.
Diamonds are faring significantly less well than India’s overall gems and jewelry sector, which saw revenue for April slip by 6 per cent to $2.48bn.
Manufacturers bought more diamonds year-on-year in April and May (up almost 2 per cent by volume) but the price slump means imports are down almost 10 per cent by value are down by almost 10 per cent to $2.39bn.
