News – Page 110 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Vutomi to sell diamonds recovered from South Africa project

Botswana Diamonds associate Vutomi has received approval to sell diamonds recovered during a bulk sampling programme at the Thorny River project in South Africa.

The Thorny River bulk sampling project is a joint venture between SouthernEra, Palaeo and Vutomi.

SouthernEra holds a 40% interest in the project and provides processing services while Palaeo holds a 40% stake and serves as the mining contractor. The remaining 20% interest is owned by Vutomi, which provides the ground.

Until 10 June, 256 carat of rough diamonds were recovered. Sale of these diamonds from the bulk sampling will fund further development by Vutomi, in which Botswana holds a 40% stake.

The trenching programme has identified a hotspot at the project site with a thick, 4m wide kimberlite intersection, indicating a kimberlite blow.

According to Botswana Diamonds, the bulk sampling programme is expected to generate short-term cash flow while developing the mineral resource.

Botswana Diamonds’ partner, SouthernEra Diamonds, has included its coarse tailings dumps produced from the mining of the Marsfontein and Klipspringer diamond mines into the same revenue share partnership agreement.

Vutomi has obtained a Section 27 mining permit for a portion of the contiguous Marsfontein farm.

Part of this farm hosts rich M8 kimberlite dyke, bordering the Marsfontein diamond mine.

Botswana Diamonds is a diamond exploration and project development company with exploration licences in Botswana and South Africa.

Source: mining-technology.com

Bluerock Diamonds’ shares jump on record find

BlueRock Diamonds shares were up 15% on the London Stock Exchange Friday after the miner announced it had recovered its largest diamond to date, a 24.9 carat gem quality stone.

BlueRock owns and operates the Kareevlei Diamond Mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa. The miner’s largest diamond prior was 16.28 carats, which sold for $78,947.

“This record recovery of such a high-quality diamond is an exciting milestone and underpins why we are so confident about the potential of the Kareevlei mine. We have a comprehensive development plan to increase production and look forward to providing further updates as we progress,” executive chairman Mike Houston said in a media statement.

The diamond will be put to tender, the results of which will be announced June 17, the company said.

BlueRock’s shares were priced at 11 pence on the LSE late Friday, on a day that saw trading volume at 61.9 million, mover six times the average daily trading volume is 9.5 million. The company has a £1.8 million market capitalization.

Source: mining.com

Russian Police Uncover Diamond Theft Gang Inside State Mining Firm Alrosa

Russian police uncovered around $3 million worth of stolen diamonds, and over $2.5 million in cash, at the homes of a criminal ring operating inside state-controlled diamond producer Alrosa, authorities said on Monday.

Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds in carat terms, confirmed that security services had uncovered an ongoing diamond theft ring in its sorting and grading department.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that three suspects, one of whom is an Alrosa employee, have been placed in custody by a Russian court.

“Alrosa completely confirms information from Russia’s FSB (security service) about the interception of an extensive scheme to steal rough diamonds in the company’s United Selling Organisation,” Alrosa said in a statement, referring to its valuation and sales department.

Alrosa competes with Anglo American’s De Beers, the biggest seller of rough diamonds by value.

The suspects were caught red-handed last Thursday attempting to steal another batch of diamonds worth over 22 million roubles ($340,000), investigators said.

During the course of their subsequent investigation, a bigger cache of diamonds and cash was found, as well as jewellery and dozens of diamond-encrusted watches.

A video shared by the Investigative Committee showed several opened safes filled with wads of $100 bills, Tiffany and Dior jewellery boxes, and multiple plastic bags of unpolished diamonds of different shapes and colours.

The court ordered that the three suspects be held in custody while the investigation continues.

“A few years ago the company announced its focus on rooting out corruption cases. This focus will be continued,” Alrosa said in its statement, adding its own security team had been involved in the investigation.

Alrosa produced 36.7 million carats of diamonds last year.

Source: themoscowtimes

Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco

Royal bride Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco channeled her grandmother Grace Kelly as she celebrated her marriage with glittering evening reception.

Charlotte, 32, donned a stunning diamond necklace once owned by the actress as she joined new husband Dimitri Rassam, 37, for the gala dinner at a private mansion on Saturday night.

The couple, who tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Monaco that afternoon, delighted royal fans by releasing a photo from the event yesterday.

Sales slide at Tiffany & Co as tourists tighten their purses

Tiffany Profits Quadrupled In Fourth Quarter

Sales performed below expectations for Tiffany & Co during the first quarter of 2019.

For the three months ended April 30, worldwide net sales fell by 3% to $1bn compared to the previous year, and comparable sales declined by 5%. On a constant exchange rate basis, net sales were equal to the prior year and comparable sales declined 2%.

Net earnings came in at $125 million, 12% lower than the prior year’s $142 million.

These results reflect mixed performance across regions and product categories.

During the quarter engagement rings sales decline by 6%, while jewellery collections saw a 1% increase.

Totally net sales declined in the major markets, with Europe and the Americas both reported a 4% decline, with the latter being impacted by lower spending from foreign tourists. In Asia Pacific total net sales fell by 1%, something the brand attributes to the effect of foreign currency translation.

As a result of Q1, Tiffany has trimmed its earnings outlook, now expecting earnings in the 2019 financial year to increase by a low to mid single digit percentage, compared with its previous forecast for a mid single digit percentage increase.

Tiffany’s chief executive officer, Alessandro Bogliolo, reports: “Our first quarter results reflect significant foreign exchange headwinds and dramatically lower worldwide spending attributed to foreign tourists. That said, we were pleased that, at the core of our business, global sales attributed to local customers, led by sales in China, grew over last year’s very strong sales results.

“We believe this growth in sales to local customers reflects progress in executing our strategic priorities, including innovations across products, communications and the customer experience, and that Tiffany is positioned for improving trends in the second half of 2019.”

Tiffany opened two company operated stores in the first quarter, closed two stores and relocated two.

At April 30, 2019, the Company operated 321 stores (124 in the Americas, 89 in Asia-Pacific, 56 in Japan, 47 in Europe and five in the UAE), versus 314 stores a year ago (123 in the Americas, 87 in Asia Pacific, 54 in Japan, 46 in Europe and four in the UAE).

Source: professionaljeweller

Alrosa to Sell Directly to Consumers

Alrosa is launching a source-of-origin program that will enable dealers and consumers to buy polished diamonds with detailed provenance information.

The Russian miner will create an “electronic passport” for each diamond on a new website, diamonds.alrosa.ru, presenting the stone’s physical characteristics, age, and place and date of extraction, as well as where and when it was cut. It will also name — and provide some information on — the artisan who polished the stone. The story will be viewable as an automated video.

The platform is initially aimed at the trade, but the company will open it up to the public in the fall of this year, it revealed last week during the JCK Las Vegas show.

“As part of the platform, there will be an option for end consumers to buy diamonds directly from Alrosa — for those individuals who want to buy a diamond with a provenance,” a spokesperson for the miner confirmed to Rapaport News Tuesday.

Proof of origin has gained importance for diamond miners, with De Beers launching a provenance program in April that enables consumers to view sustainability credentials for its mines at dtc.com. Alrosa explained its strategy during the JCK show, arguing that it was taking the issue much more seriously than many other market players.

“The traceability of a diamond is a pledge of confidence to anyone making such a purchase,” Alrosa added. Information on provenance, social responsibility and a stone’s non-conflict status “are all required by purchasers, especially younger generations,” the company noted. It’s currently trialing the system with 2,000 diamonds, and plans to increase that number soon.

Alrosa’s program will encompass diamonds from its own polished division, which had sales of approximately $95 million in 2018. The company is in negotiations to acquire Russian manufacturer Kristall, which would triple its polished output. The deal is expected to close this year, company representatives said.

Source: Diamonds.net

Lucapa diamonds sell for $14.5 million at auction

Lucapa Diamond Company has continued its successful run at auction after securing $US10 million ($14.5 million) for the sale of alluvial diamonds from its Lulo mine in Angola, central Africa.

The run-of-mine diamonds, which totalled 5573 carats in weight (around 11.15 kilograms), achieved an average price of $US1800 a carat.

Several more high-value Lulo diamonds — including a 130-carat type IIa diamond and 45-carat pink — are still being held as inventory by partner Sociedade Mineira Do Lulo (SML), which is operated and 40 per cent-owned by Lucapa.

SML plans to expand Lulo’s plant throughput by 50 per cent to around 450,000 bulk cubic metres by 2020. The company upgraded Lulo’s JORC resource in January by 90 per cent to 80,400 in-situ carats at an average price of $US1420 a carat.

It is Western Australia-based Lucapa’s fourth diamond tender in 2019, following two auctions in February and a third in May.

It is also the second tender of the year from the company’s Lulo mine. The first auction, which took place via electronic tender in Luanda, Angola in February, remains the company’s largest sale of the year so far. It secured $US16.7 million for the sale of seven large diamonds at an average price of $US33,530 a carat.

The other two auctions related to the sale of diamonds from Lucapa’s other African mine, the Mothae kimberlite joint venture project between Lucapa (70 per cent) and the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa (30 per cent).

These sales took place in Antwerp, Belgium in February and May, and raised $5.3 million and $US3.5 million respectively.

Lucapa launched commercial production of Mothae in January this year. The company is also progressing two early-stage exploration projects: Orapa Area F in Botswana and Brooking in Western Australia.

Source: australianmining

RapNet Members Say ‘No’ to Synthetics

The RapNet community has voted overwhelmingly against introducing services for the lab-grown-diamond sector.

Members voted by 79% to 21% against the trading platform listing synthetics on the site. They also rejected a lab-grown price list, with 74% voting “no.”

The poll took place on RapNet last week. The audience applauded when Martin Rapaport, Chairman of the Rapaport Group, revealed the results Sunday at the annual Rapaport Breakfast at JCK Las Vegas.

Following the results, RapNet will not provide a trading platform for synthetics, or introduce a price list for the product, Rapaport confirmed. “We believe the current prices for synthetic diamonds are artificial, as they are based on misleading disclosure,” he added.

Voters also heavily backed the view that synthetics producers must disclose post-growth treatments, and supported the establishment of an organization for the natural-diamond industry.

RapNet vote results:

Should RapNet list synthetic diamonds?
Yes: 1,607 (21%)
No: 5,934 (79%)

Should Rapaport publish a synthetic price list?
Yes: 1,885 (26%)
No: 5,232 (74%)

Should synthetic diamonds be required to disclose treatments?
Yes: 5,892 (88%)
No: 819 (12%)

Would you support establishment of a natural-diamond organization?
Yes: 5,528 (85%)
No: 1,104 (15%)

Source: Rapaport News

Nirav Modi Assets Set for Vegas Auction

A selection of jewelry and intellectual property belonging to Nirav Modi’s Firestar Diamond and Fantasy businesses will be up for auction at the JCK Las Vegas show.

The sale will feature $3.5 million worth of Nirav Modi jewelry, including wedding bands, bracelets and necklaces. Purchasers will also be granted the patents to reproduce the jewelry in the US and other countries, according to the Gem Certification and Assurance Lab (GCAL), which is organizing the event.

Firestar’s liquidators have already auctioned several of the lots from Modi’s US companies, including the trademark rights to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” which was purchased for $50,000 in October.

The sale will take place on June 7 at GCAL’s JCK booth. It is the eighth in a series of sales of Modi’s US assets. The Indian jeweler, who allegedly defrauded Punjab National Bank of $2 billion, was arrested in London in March.

Source: Diamonds.net

Rough diamonds from Mothae fetch US$3.5 million in Antwerp

Lucapa Diamond Company and the Government of Lesotho have announced results from the second tender in 2019 of diamonds from the new Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho.

The parcel of 7,008 carats of rough diamonds sold at tender in Antwerp for a total of US$3.5 million.

The tender included prices of up to US$26,000 per carat paid for individual Mothae gems.

Lucapa MD, Stephen Wetherall, says the latest tender results continued to underline Mothae’s status as one of a select few global mines capable of producing high-value diamonds on a consistent basis.

“We continue to be encouraged by the regular recovery of Specials and sales results achieved from the supposed lower-margin areas of the Mothae kimberlite pipe,” says Wetherall.

“These results add to the excitement as our mining campaign prepares to transition to the higher margin diamond zones in the main southern pit in H2 once the water is transferred to our main dam to ensure we have appropriate water supplies for our planned increased treatment rates during the dry months.”

The latest result brings to US$7.3 million the total sale proceeds generated from the two tenders of Mothae diamonds completed this year.

This represents an average overall price of US$588 per carat for the run of mine production and US$729 per carat for diamonds in the +11 sieve
size fraction.

Lucapa is considering a third tender in H1, 2019 following the continued strong recoveries from the new 1.1 Mtpa kimberlite plant, including the 126 carat gem-quality diamond recovered earlier this month and other Type IIa Specials.

As set out in the ASX announcement of 27 May 2019, mining has been restricted predominantly to the lower-margin diamond zones since commercial production commenced at Mothae in January

This due to the decision to delay the scheduled dewatering of the main southern pit to preserve water required to enable the plant to operate at higher throughput rates in H2 2019.

The water in the southern pit will be transferred to the main 500,000 m3 water dam in H2, 2019 when the dam wall is completed.

This will in turn enable Mothae to access the higher-margin diamond zones in the southern pit.

Source: miningreview