Mountain Province reported increased net losses for the latest quarter as prices keep on dropping in a “challenging market”.
The Canadian miner today (7 November) announced a net loss of $13.6m for the three months to 30 September, following on from a $4.7m loss in Q2 (all figures are in US dollars).
“In Q3 2024 our sales achieved 100 per cent sell-through with no unsold stock held at the end of September and a higher average selling price than the three preceding quarters,” said Reid Mackie, VP sales and marketing at Mountain Province.
The average price per carat was, however, down 21 per cent on a year ago – from $95 to $75.
The company sold a 679,599 carats were sold for $50.8m, compared to 478,653 carats in Q3 2023 for $45.3m. Year-on-year the number of carats sold was up almost 30 per cent, but revenue increased by just 12 per cent.
Adjusted EBITDA was $12.5m and loss from mine operations was $8m.
As for operations at the Gahcho Kue mine (pictured), the number of tonnes of ore treated increased 10 per cent year-on-year, but the number of carats recovered fell by 10 per cent.
CEO Mark Wall explained that this was “driven by planned lower grade in Q3 and unplanned lower grade in March and early Q2 of 2024”.
He said that while the diamond market had been disappointing, he was optimistic that the price environment would recover during 2025 and that it would be followed by a very strong production year in 2026.
Russia’s Finance Ministry is considering new purchases of rough diamonds from Alrosa for the State Precious Metals and Gemstones Repository (Gokhran) in 2025, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told reporters on the sidelines of the Moscow Financial Forum.
“We are considering this possibility,” Moiseyev said in response to possibly resuming purchases. “In order to allow Alrosa the opportunity to be calm and not feel obliged to sell on the market in order to maintain its liquidity position. Because the market looks alarming.”
The government could use budgetary allocations for precious metals and stones to purchase rough diamonds. The purchase limit is planned at 51.5 billion rubles for next year, Moiseyev said.
It became known in March that Alrosa and the Finance Ministry had concluded an agreement to buy out part of the raw materials produced in 2024 and completed a transaction for the first consignment of rough diamonds. There have been no reports since then regarding Alrosa purchasing diamonds from Gokhran.
“There are no plans for this year, though we are considering the possibility for next year,” Moiseyev said. “In general, this is all confidential, so we may not announce it.”
A select few with deep pockets are rolling into Perth to snap up the latest collection of Argyle diamonds, as unsold inventory of the ultra-rare gems whittles down to a “teaspoon”.
A top secret location in the CBD this week will host prospective buyers from Australia and overseas vying for 76 polished pink, red, and other coloured diamonds — predominantly unearthed at Rio Tinto’s shuttered Argyle mine in the east Kimberley region.
Argyle operated for 37 years up until 2020, and about 95 per cent of the world’s circulation of pink and red diamonds can be traced back to the mine.
Each carat of an Argyle pink or red can easily fetch a multi-million-dollar sum. Earlier this year a 1.56ct Argyle red sold for $US4.3 million ($6.4m) in Geneva, equating to $US2.7m a carat. One of the pinks in the latest collection weighs 2.63ct.
But not all of the famed gems sold are destined for an extravagant jewellery piece, with many opting to keep their purchase locked away in a vault as an investment.
“We have seen double digit price growth year on year for the past 20 years . . . and we seeing demand continue unabated for these stones,” Rio Tinto diamond sales and business development manager Michelle Sherring told The West Australian.
“The constrained supply means the value of pink diamonds has eclipsed any kind of comparable equity indices, like the Dow Jones and Hang Seng et cetera, over the years.”
Since mining ceased at Argyle Rio has touted each of its annual tenders for the diamonds as being one of the last.
“We now have a mere teaspoon (of unsold Argyle pinks and reds) remaining within our own inventory,” Ms Sherring said.
Stockpiles are now so low that for the first time ever the collection includes diamonds Rio has bought back from customers.
“Including the secondary market is a new concept for this year, we have very strong relationships with our long running customers,” Ms Sheering said.
“So I approached a handful of them at the beginning of the year in terms of the concept and we have over these years understood where some of the important diamonds sit and which safes they might be held in.
“It was a process of curation, and ultimately, what we have is a set of seven round diamonds which represent the real pinnacle of rarity.”
Of the 76 stones in the latest collection, 74 are from Argyle — the pink, red and blue diamonds — while the remaining two are a yellow and white diamond sourced from Rio’s Daivik mine in Canada.
Rio is displaying the collection — comprising 48 separate lots and weighing a combined 39.44 carats — on an invite-only basis in Perth, London, Singapore and Belgium. Bids for the tender will close on November 18.
Murray Rayner, who was previously the chief geologist for Argyle Diamonds, last year told The West that the existence of Argyle’s pink diamonds was due to a “fluke of nature” that will be extremely difficult to replicate.
Mr Rayner said the pink diamonds emerged around 1.8 billion years ago when the Kimberley collided into Australia, bringing pink diamonds closer to the Earth’s surface.
These pink diamonds were originally created at one point three billion years ago when our planet’s once-connected continents began to rip apart, with the intense pressure from this event causing the pink colouration in the diamonds.
“To find another deposit would be an extraordinarily rare event in its own right, we’ve looked over the last few decades without any success,” he said.
The near-empty Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) is hoping the arrival of around 40 lab grown traders will signal a change in its fortunes.
The vast new center, recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest office building in existence, was officially opened last December by India’s prime minister Narendra Modi .
It has a capacity of 4,500 offices, but remains virtually empty.
The bourse has, according to local media reports, now reached an agreement with the Lab Grown Diamond Association (LGDA) to relocate around 40 lab grown companies from elsewhere in Surat.
Mahesh Gadhvi, CEO at SDB, said recently that 250 offices were currently occupied (that’s less than 6 per cent of the total).
“Steadily we are progressing towards opening more offices and starting more businesses from SDB,” he told the business news channel CNBC.
The luxury Swiss watchmaker will sell direct to consumers at the HKRI Taikoo Hui mall, in Shanghai, according to Chinese media reports.
The store will be operated by Bucherer, the long-established watch retailer that was wholly acquired by Rolex last September, and will carry Bucherer branding. No date has been given for its opening
China is the second biggest market for Swiss watches after the US, accounting for $209m of exports in August.
But it is currently intensifying efforts to curb conspicuous extravagance, particularly through a crackdown on social media influencers who flaunt excessive wealth.
In addition overall sales of Swiss watches are suffering, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, which describes the outlook for the rest of the year as negative.
Rolex dominates the Swiss watch market, with a share of more than 30 per cent. It has always relied on authorized dealers to manage its Chinese operations.
Canadian miner Lucara has sold Clara, its digital sales platform, to former CEO Eira Thomas and a group led by the Vancouver-based HRA Group of Companies.
The move gives Clara’s new owners the freedom to sell other diamonds, in addition to those produced by Lucara at its Karowe mine, in Botswana. It also allows Lucara to focus on the underground expansion of the mine.
Thomas, who stood down last August as Lucara CEO, led the commercialization of the Clara. She said it was designed to disrupt the way diamonds are traded after a century of inefficiency and inflexibility.
Clara’s new owners – HRA and Thomas – will pay $3m in cash and return 10,000,000 Lucara common shares initially issued as partial consideration when Lucara originally acquired the platform in 2018.
“We are excited about the opportunity to realize its full potential, which remains largely unexplored,” said Aaron Ariel, managing director and original founder of Clara.
“We believe it will become the industry’s premier global rough-diamond marketplace. We look forward to partnering with stakeholders throughout the supply chain who share our vision for a healthier, more transparent, and, last but certainly not least, a more profitable industry for all.”
Lucara will retain a 3% net profit interest on Clara’s net earnings and has granted Clara a five-year rough diamond supply agreement for stones meeting the size and quality specifications historically sold through the Clara platform.
Lucara’s larger stones – those over 10.8-cts – are sold via HB Antwerp as part of an ongoing 10-year agreement. They account for around 70 per cent of the company’s revenue.
William Lamb, president and CEO of Lucara, said: “The divestiture of Clara enables us to intensify our strategic focus on maximizing returns and long-term value creation at our world-class Karowe diamond mine in Botswana.
“While the Clara platform provides an innovative digital channel for rough diamond sales, the successful onboarding of other producers’ rough production required to scale the platform, remains unattainable while the platform is owned by a pure-play diamond producer.”
The Criminal Investigative Service (SIC) in Angola seized 710 diamonds of different carats on Sunday in Lucapa, a municipality in the northeastern Lunda-Norte province of Angola.
According to Graciano Lumanhe, the SIC spokesperson in Lunda-Norte, three individuals from Guinea Conakry were found in possession of the diamonds.
Angola Seizes 710 Diamond Stones From Three Guineans In addition to the diamonds, the officers also discovered a diamond weighing scale, two calculating machines, magnifying glasses, a sieve, and $860 and 68,000 kwanzas in cash during the operation.
All the evidence has been submitted to the Office of the Public Prosecutor as part of the preparations for criminal proceedings against the three suspects.
Rio Tinto launched on Wednesday its 2024 Beyond Rare tender, the second in its Art Series, showcasing 48 lots of extraordinarily rare stones from its diamonds business.
Titled Colour Awakened, this collection is headlined by seven “Old Masters”, notable historic diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia that operated from 1983 to 2020.
The Old Masters comprise seven round brilliant cut, pink and red diamonds, ranging in size from 0.60 carat to 2.63 carats. All unearthed from the mine over a decade ago in one case, as far back as 1987 each diamond has been carefully retrieved from private vaults and handpicked for inclusion in this year’s tender.
“No other mining company in the world has custody of such a kaleidoscope of coloured diamonds,” Sinead Kaufman, chief executive of Rio Tinto Minerals said in the statement.
In addition to the Old Masters, the Art Series 02 includes legacy inventory of pink, red and violet diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine, together with white and yellow diamonds from Rio Tinto’s Diavik diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
“Four years on from the closure of the Argyle mine, our Beyond Rare Tender platform is a testimony to the enduring prestige of the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand, the quality of production from our Diavik mine, and the ongoing demand for highly collectible natural diamonds,” Kaufman said.
In total there are 76 diamonds, weighing 39.44 carats, comprising seven Old Masters, including one Fancy Red diamond; 32 single lots of pink and violet diamonds, including one Fancy Purplish Red diamond; and a rarified offering of nine carefully curated diamond sets, two of which include a 2.47 carat Fancy Intense Yellow diamond and a 4.04 carat D colour diamond, respectively, each from Diavik.
The 48 lots will be showcased in London, Australia, Singapore and Belgium, with bids closing on November 18.
A fancy-pink diamond pendant is set to headline an upcoming jewelry auction at Sotheby’s in Paris, where it is expected to fetch up to EUR 550,000 ($612,797).
The cushion-cut, 4.03-carat diamond piece will feature at the October 10 Fine Jewels sale, according to the Sotheby’s website. The auction will also offer jewels from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Giovanni Ferraris.
Additionally, the event will showcase more than 80 pieces from the collection of British singer Dame Shirley Bassey, including diamond jewelry Elton John gifted her.
Here are the rest of top 10 jewels that will be auctioned:
This Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet designed as a band of articulated branches —embellished with carved emeralds, rubies and emerald beads drill-set with single-cut diamonds — carries a top estimate of EUR 450,000 ($501,395). A necklace from the Shirley Bassey collection composed of a row of graduated brilliant-cut diamonds, with the main ones weighing 5.50, 5.36, and 4.61 carats, could sell for up to EUR 280,000 ($311,798). Sotheby’s will offer this gold and diamond Cartier set comprising a necklace, two bracelets, a pair of ear clips, and a ring, each paved with brilliant-cut diamonds, for a high price of EUR 260,000 ($289,687). A David Morris ring bearing a rectangular step-cut, 7.15-carat diamond of F color and internally flawless clarity, flanked by tapered baguette diamonds, is expected to bring in EUR 140,000 to EUR 250,000 ($155,990 to $278,554). This sapphire and diamond bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels forms a stylized buckle set with a row of oval sapphires framed by brilliant-cut diamonds. It has a presale range of EUR 140,000 to EUR 240,000 ($155,990 to $267,410). This ring with a pear-shaped, fancy-brownish-yellow diamond weighing 20.03 carats could achieve as much as EUR 220,000 ($245,116). A necklace composed of openwork and oval motifs, each set with an oval sapphire within a double surrounding of brilliant-cut diamonds, has an upper price of EUR 180,000 ($200,540).A 21.17-carat, fancy-light-brown-yellow, SI2-clarity diamond ring with marquise-shaped diamond shoulders is anticipated to realize up to EUR 170,000 ($189,415). This claw-set ring with a rectangular step-cut, 5.06-carat diamond flanked by triangular diamonds carries a high estimate of EUR 150,000 ($155,990).
Lightbox has just launched new campaigns for its lab grown diamonds – despite its announcement in June that it was halting production.
The wholly-owned De Beers-owned subsidiary says it has enough existing inventory to keep it going for the time being.
The production facility in Portland, Oregon, USA, is now being used to manufacture industrial diamonds by Element Six, also owned by De Beers.
“Lightbox has sufficient existing inventory from Element Six to meet the brand’s needs for the foreseeable future,” a company spokesperson told IDEX Online.
“At JCK (in June), we communicated that Element Six (our synthetic diamond industrial business which had also been producing LGDs for Lightbox) would suspend production of LGDs for jewellery to focus on high-tech industrial applications.
“However, Lightbox as a brand is continuing as it plays an important role in supporting the differentiation between LGDs and natural diamonds as LGD prices continue to decline and they are increasingly used in fashion jewellery.
“The latest Lightbox campaigns, referenced in the email below, reinforce this as they focus on foregrounding the message of Lightbox’s recently lowered per carat pricing and its fashion-forward approach to product design.
Lightbox says its new Fall campaigns – Shine Bright Spend Less and Modern Family – reflect the brand’s focus on fashion jewelry and accessible pricing.
Melissa Crivillaro, Lightbox’s chief marketing officer, said: “Our accessible prices, our fun and colorful innovations, and our fashion-focused lab-grown diamond jewelry collections underpin Lightbox’s broad appeal.
“As we lean into our next chapter with a revived identity, new creative campaigns and bold price messaging, we look to connect more deeply with our customers.”
