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Petra Diamonds Limited lost some of their lustre, sliding 5.3% to 7.65p after the diamond miner underwhelmed with a trading update.
Revenue in the three months to the end of September – the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year – was down 23% to US$61.6 million from US$80.2 million in the same period of 2018.
The company sold 603,626 carats, compared to 626,541 a year earlier, at prices roughly 4% lower than in the three months to the end of June.
A fancy deep blue diamond ring with a high estimate of CHF 14 million will go under the hammer at Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels auction next month.
The 7.03 carat stone, mounted by Moussaieff, will lead the November auction, Christie’s said Thursday. Another prominent lot is a 46.93 carat, D color, internally flawless diamond ring, which is expected to fetch CHF 3.8 million to 4.5 million.
Christie’s will also offer a 42.97 carat Burmese sapphire pendant, valued at up to CHF 3 million, and a pair of untreated Colombian emerald earrings, each weighing over 7.5 carats, with a presale estimate of CHF 1 million to 1.5 million.
Other items on offer include a rare Belle Époque brooch, dated circa 1910, which was procured by the Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba at the height of her career. The turquoise and diamond piece is valued at CHF 250,000 to CHF 350,000.
The sale also encompasses several Art Deco pieces from Cartier. Three brooches, formerly in the collection of Countess Béatrice of Granard OBE, have a high presale estimate of CHF 220,000. A diamond Cartier bandeau, which can also be worn as a choker, two bracelets and a brooch, is valued at up to CHF 500,000.
Highlights from the collection are available for viewing at Christie’s London on October 22 and 23, and at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva, from November 7 to 12.
Source: Diamonds.net
Lower mining grades and reduced ore availability contributed to a drop in Rio Tinto’s third-quarter diamond production, the company reported Wednesday.
Output at its wholly owned Argyle mine in Australia fell 7% year on year, yielding 3.6 million carats in the three-month period ending September 30. Production was hampered by lower grades, despite stronger mining and processing rates, Rio Tinto said.
Rio Tinto’s share of production at the Diavik mine in Canada also shrank 7% to 994,000 carats for the same period due to lower ore availability both underground and at the A21 extension pipe it opened in August last year. The company owns 60% of the deposit, with Dominion Diamond Mines holding the remainder.
Rio Tinto’s total diamond production, including its share of Diavik goods, dropped 7% to 4.5 million carats.
For the first nine months of the year, the miner produced 12.8 million carats, compared to 14.1 million in the same period of 2018. Its 2019 forecast remains unchanged at 15 million to 17 million carats, down from 18.4 million carats last year.
Consultants from Deloitte have been tapped to oversee a third high profile administration in weeks. In the firm’s latest restructuring win, Deloitte Financial Advisory has been appointed by the Federal Court of Australia as a provisional liquidator of Merlin Diamonds.
The appointment comes after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), an independent Australian government body that acts as Australia’s corporate regulator, asked the Court to wound up Merlin Diamonds, which is the parent of Merlin diamond mine in the Northern Territory, about 80 kilometres south of Borroloola.
The Merlin diamond mine was discovered more than 25 years ago, and first went into operation in 2000. Shortly after opening, the site yielded Australia’s largest diamond, a 104.73 carat stone back ten valued at over half a million US dollar’s. In 2017, the site also yielded a 35.26-carat rough brown diamond believed to be the fifth largest stone discovered in the country.
Under the ownership of Merlin Diamonds previous owners include Ashton Mining, Rio Tinto and North Australian Diamonds the mine’s total production however never reached the targets set. The Merlin diamond mine is currently one of only three diamond mines in Australia, and was set to become Australia’s last operating diamond mine when the Argyle mine in Western Australia ceases operation next year.
In October, ASIC kicked off a probe into a $13 million loan from the mining group to a private company associated to the diamond producer’s owner. The owner of Merlin Diamonds, mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, had in recent years completed a number of such loans and has proven unwilling or incapable of repaying the loans.
The instigation came shortly after an arbitration was started in Western Australia and the Northern Territory by former contractors and employees of Merlin Diamonds, who claim that they are owed more than $1.2 million in payments. Shares of Merlin Diamonds were suspended from trading last year after its management failed to file a quarterly report with the Australian Securities Exchange.
Provisional liquidation
Based on ASIC’s claim that there is a “justifiable lack of confidence in the directors’ conduct and their ability to manage Merlin’s affairs in the best interests of its shareholders and creditors”, the Court has pushed Merlin Diamonds into provisional liquidation.
Deloitte Financial Advisory has been tasked with assessing the financial situation, shedding light on the status of the loan portfolio, and drafting a plan on how to redeem stakeholders. Meanwhile, future options for the Merlin Diamonds and the Merlin diamond mine will be explored.
Earlier this month, restructuring experts from Deloitte were tapped to manage the wind-down of Karen Millen in Australia. The firm’s consultants further played their part in completing the sale of collapsed SME lender Axsesstoday.
Source: consultancy
Alrosa’s sales fell 24% year on year to $258.7 million in September, amid continued market weakness.
However, the total was the highest in four months, and reflected a noticeable recovery in the small-stone sector, the Russian miner said last week.
“It is partly due to the traditional autumn market revival after the holiday period, and a slight increase in demand from Indian cutters and polishers ahead of the Diwali festival,” said Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev. “The most noticeable increase [was] sales of small-sized rough diamonds.”
Rough-diamond sales decreased 23% to $256.5 million for the month, while polished revenue plunged 69% to $2.2 million.
Alrosa’s sales fell 34% to $2.42 billion in the first nine months of the year. Revenue from rough stones dropped 34% to $2.39 billion for the period, while polished-diamond sales slid 50% to $36.8 million.
However, while sales have seen a slight boost, Alrosa thinks a full recovery will take longer.
“The market is still facing low demand for rough diamonds, though there has been a gradual recovery for some categories of diamonds,” Agureev added. “We still believe it will take some time to get a balance between supply and demand.”
Agureev, who has been the director of Alrosa’s United Selling Organization (USO) since 2017, was promoted to deputy CEO of the group last week.
“Given the difficult conditions in the global diamond market today, Evgeny will continue to improve the efficiency of the entire supply chain of the company and look for new approaches to stimulate rough-diamond sales, as well as to increase the level of interaction with the company’s customers and expand the customer base,” noted Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov.
Source: Diamonds.net
African miner Lucapa Diamond Company said yesterday its latest sales of diamonds from the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola and the Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho totaled $10.4 million.
Year to date sales are $45.9 million.
The average price per carat is $1,087 at the Lulo Mine. Excluded from the figures is a 46-carat pink diamond, which has been exported by SML to Antwerp and is being assessed for polishing.
At the Mothae Mine, the average price per carat was $837. The mine began operations in January. The company said the mine has already recovered seven +50 carat diamonds.
Lucapa Diamond is focused on becoming a producer of large and premium-quality diamonds from alluvial and kimberlite sources.
A pink diamond ring was the top lot at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction this week, garnering HKD 155.8 million ($19.9 million), or $1.9 million per carat.
The cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut, 10.64-carat, fancy-vivid-purplish-pink, internally flawless stone, set between two white trapeze diamonds, had a presale estimate of HKD 150 million to HKD 200 million ($19.1 million to 25.5 million). Total proceeds at the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite auction came to HKD 300.8 million ($38.3 million).
A 100.02-carat, fancy-intense-yellow diamond necklace by Anna Hu, fashioned in the shape of a pipa — a Chinese musical instrument similar to a four-stringed lute — sold for HKD 45.3 million ($5.8 million) against a presale estimate of HKD 40 million to HKD 50 million ($5.1 million to $6.4 million). The necklace was one of five pieces in Hu’s Silk Road Music Collection, all of which found buyers, Sotheby’s told Rapaport News.
Meanwhile, a necklace featuring a pear-shaped, 15.08-carat diamond suspended from a row of alternating step-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds brought in HKD 9.2 million ($1.2 million). It was estimated at HKD 7.6 million to HKD 10 million ($968,860 to $1.3 million).
Three of the auction’s top lots failed to find a buyer, including an emerald-cut, 80.88-carat, D-flawless, type IIa diamond with a presale estimate of $10 million to $12.8 million, Sotheby’s added. An 11.88-carat, pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby and diamond ring by designer Raymond Yard, valued at $5.6 million to $8.2 million, and a jadeite bead necklace with a diamond clasp, estimated at $3.2 million to $4.1 million, also went unsold.
Source: Diamonds.net
An unusual diamond with another diamond found inside was mined in Yakutia at the Nyurba mining and processing division of Alrosa, the Russian miner announced Friday.
Due to its peculiarity, the stone resembles a traditional Russian Matryoshka doll. According to the experts who have studied the find, this is the first such diamond in the history of global diamond mining, Alrosa said.
According to scientists, the diamond may be over 800 million years old. Despite its complex structure, it weighs only 0.62 carats.
Specialists of the Yakutsk Diamond Trade Enterprise discovered this unusual diamond during a sorting process and handed it over to the Research and Development Geological Enterprise of Alrosa.
There, it was studied using several methods, including Raman and infrared spectroscopies, as well as X-ray microtomography. Based on the results of the study, the scientists have a theory about how the crystal was formed; that there was an internal diamond at first, and the external one was formed during the subsequent stages of growth.
“The most interesting thing for us was to find out how the air space between the inner and outer diamonds was formed. We have two main hypotheses,” said Oleg Kovalchuk, deputy director, innovations at ALROSA’s Research and Development Geological Enterprise.
“According to the first version, a mantle mineral captured a diamond during its growth, and later it was dissolved in the Earth’s surface. According to the second version, a layer of porous polycrystalline diamond substance was formed inside the diamond because of ultra-fast growth, and more aggressive mantle processes subsequently dissolved it.
Due to the presence of the dissolved zone, one diamond began to move freely inside another on the principle of matryoshka nesting doll,” said Kovalchuk.
“As far as we know, there were no such diamonds in the history of global diamond mining yet.”
Source: mining.com
Petra Diamonds will hold a special tender of the 20.08-carat blue diamond. The stone, a gem-quality Type llb diamond, was recovered from the Cullinan mine in South Africa last month.
Viewings will take place at Petra’s diamond marketing offices in Johannesburg from November 1-7 and at the Diamond and Exchange and Export Center from November 8-15.
South Africa’s Petra Diamonds could make up to $15 million for a 20.08 carat blue rough diamond it recovered in September at its iconic Cullinan mine, when it goes for sale at a planned tender in Johannesburg next month.
Investment bank Berenberg valued the “exceptional” blue gem quality diamond at between $10 and $15 million, based on prices Petra has achieved for similar roughs from Cullinan in previous years. In 2015, the miner sold “The Blue Moon of Josephine”, a 29.6 carat blue stone, for $48.5 million, marking a world record price per carat at auction for any diamond at the time.
Sales of jewelry and other luxury items in Hong Kong sank in August, marking the sharpest monthly decline on record as protests in the municipality hit tourism and consumption.
Revenue from jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuable gifts dropped 47% year on year to HKD 3.93 billion ($501.3 million) during the month, the municipality’s Census and Statistics Department reported Wednesday. That marks the lowest monthly decline for jewelry since the department began publishing results in 2005, according to a public data archive. Sales across all retail categories slipped 23% to HKD 29.36 billion ($3.74 billion).
Demonstrations against an extradition bill have been escalating since June, forcing luxury stores, train stations and the city’s airport to shut down. Although the bill has been scrapped, unrest has continued, with police reportedly shooting an 18-year-old protester Tuesday, and more than 100 people, including 30 police officers, being hospitalized amid the increased violence.
The situation has led to a sharp decline in travelers from China and abroad, as well as weakened local purchasing. The number of tourists visiting Hong Kong was down 39% to 3.6 million in August, the Hong Kong Tourism Board reported. Of those, 2.8 million came from mainland China, a decline of 42% over the same period last year.
The overall retail decline was “even worse than that recorded in September 1998 during the Asian financial crisis,” a government spokesperson noted. “Apart from the weak consumer sentiment amid subdued economic conditions, the plunge in August mainly reflected the severe disruptions to inbound tourism and consumption-related activities caused by the local social incidents.”
The government expects weakness in the market to continue as conditions persist, it explained.
“Retail sales will likely remain in the doldrums in the near term, as the worsened economic outlook and local protests involving violence continue to weigh on consumer sentiment and inbound tourism,” the spokesperson added.
Swiss bank UBS also expects a continued decline in the market, noting a more challenging outlook for hard luxury, which includes jewelry and watches, versus soft luxury, comprising bags, leather and clothing.
“This is particularly prevalent in the Chinese market, with hard luxury more exposed to recent [yuan] depreciation and protests in Hong Kong,” the bank explained. “Because of their long-term availability and high price tag, these are less likely to benefit from repatriation of demand in case of short-term disruptions in Hong Kong. Note that 50% of Chinese diamond jewelry was purchased in Hong Kong in 2018, [so] the near-term disruptions to sales [are] likely to be significant.”
In the first eight months of the year, retail sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuable gifts decreased 14% to HKD 50.06 billion ($6.38 billion). Sales in all retail categories for the January-to-July period fell 6% to HKD 305.05 billion ($38.9 billion).
Source: diamonds.net