Michael Hill’s US sales dropped in the past fiscal year as the Australia-based jeweler struggled in the key market.
Revenue from American operations slid 12% to $12.5 million, while same-store sales fell 8.5%, the retailer reported Monday.
Michael Hill has attempted to revive growth in its US network by appointing Brett Halliday — a successful head of the group’s Canada division — as head of the stateside business. However, the US stores continued to perform weakly, Michael Hill said.
“Our US business underwent a lot of change during the year including a leadership change and a new advertising direction,” the company said. “As a result, it struggled to improve performance.”
The company closed a store in Columbus, Ohio, due to poor performance, and wrote off the value of its outlet in Roosevelt Fields, New York.
Halliday “is reviewing the US business based on his learnings from the Canadian market and making adjustments to the model as required,” Michael Hill explained.
Total company revenue grew 6% to $461.8 million (AUD 583 million), driven by a stronger performance in Australia, where sales increased 4%, and Canada, where revenue leapt 18%. Sales in the retailer’s New Zealand stores slipped 0.8%. Group profit grew 67
Source: Diamonds.net
Lucapa Diamond Company announced Thursday it has recovered seven stones exceeding 50 carats at its Lulo mine in Angola, including two type IIa stones.
The two IIa stones weigh 68 carats and 83 carats. All seven rough diamonds scheduled to sell in September as part of the next parcel marketed by Sociedade Mineira Do Lulo the mining company in which Lucapa has a 40% stake.
The large diamond finds come from Lulo’s block 8, at which Lucapa recently resumed operations at the end of the wet season.
This area is known for yielding large diamonds, including Angola’s 404 carat rough diamond which is the biggest recorded and sold for $16 million.
Costco Wholesale Corporation ordered to pay Tiffany & Co. at least $19.35 million in damages after selling counterfeit diamond rings bearing the iconic jeweler’s name, a US federal judge ordered last week.
Costco to pay $11.1 million plus interest plus an addition to the $8.25 million in punitive damages that a jury awarded last October for Tiffany’s lost profit from the trademark infringement a US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain Said.
Evidence at the trial proved Costco had frequently reference Tiffany as a benchmark for style and quality, and placed rings labeled with the standalone word “Tiffany” next to branded luxury items.
The ruling sends a clear message to others who infringe the Tiffany mark.
Polished into a radiant-cut and rated as VS2 clarity.
The diamond named the Argyle Everglow, was revealed in New York as part of the 2017 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender.
Red Diamonds are the rarest of colours. An very small percentage of the world’s mined diamonds are classified and graded as Fancy Red even less over one carat.
The origin of the colour of pink and red in diamonds is the result of an atomic misalignment in the lattice of the diamond, This affects the way light is refracted through the stone.
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Gem Diamonds found the high quality 126 carat, D colour Type IIa rock at Letšeng.
Gem Diamonds unveiled Thursday a 126-carat rock unearthed at its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the latest in a string of major discoveries at the operation this year.
The finding of the high quality D colour Type IIa diamond comes barely a month after the company discovered two massive diamonds at the same mine a 151.52 carat Type I yellow rock and a high quality 104.73-carat, D colour Type IIa stone.
It also follows the recovery of a 114 carat diamond in April and an 80 carat, D colour Type II diamond found in May one of the highest quality diamonds to come out of the Letšeng mine.
Type IIa diamonds contain very little or no nitrogen atoms, which places them among the most expensive stones. Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, Gem Diamonds has found four of the 20 largest white gem quality diamonds ever recovered, which makes of the mine the world’s highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond operation.
At an average elevation of 3,100 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.
Africa focused Gem Diamonds has discovered two diamonds bigger than 100 carats at its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, which should help the company boost revenue and investors confidence.
The two massive diamonds are a 151.52-carat Type I yellow rock and a high quality 104.73-carat, D colour Type IIa stone, the London-based miner said in a statement. "The last time Gem Diamonds had made a significant discovery at its Letšeng mine before April this year was in 2015." The findings come on the heels of other key discoveries at the mine. In April, the company announced the recovery of a 114 carat diamond and last month it found one of the highest quality diamonds to come out of the Letšeng mine an 80 carat, D colour Type II diamond.
The last time Gem Diamonds had found a significant diamond in Lesotho was in 2015, when it unearthed an “exceptional” 357 carat rock, later sold for $19.3 million. Investors reacted positively to the news, with the stock was trading at 1.64% higher at 93 pence around 2:00PM GMT.
Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, the company has found four of the 20 largest white gem quality diamonds ever recovered, which makes of the Lesotho mine the world’s highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond operation. At an average elevation of 3,100 metres above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.
Source:mining.com
Controversial Australia-based miner Kimberley Diamonds has put its last remaining diamond mine into administration after it failed to secure fresh funding.
Kimberley, which avoided an estimated $40 million clean-up bill after it walked away from its Ellendale mine in Western Australia’s north, shut its Lerala operation in Botswana last week and placed the subsidiary responsible for the project into administration.
Kimberley said in a statement on its website that its subsidiary Lerala Diamond Mines had “no choice” but to place itself into administration after the parent company was unable to strike a new financing deal.
It had earlier stopped day to day operations at Lerala pending an overhaul of the mine’s diamond processing plant. “The successful completion of this performance improvement plant required further funds to be provided by investors and despite considerable progress being made on implementing these improvements, all of the required funds have not been forthcoming,” Kimberley said. “Kimberley has been in discussions with investors regarding further funds for some time, however to date no agreement for further and sufficient funding has been reached and KDL has been forced to cease providing financial support to Lerala.” But the collapse of Lerala won’t kill off the parent. Kimberley said it remained in discussions with investors for further funding and was “exploring corporate restructuring options”.
Kimberley delisted from the ASX earlier this year after a chequered history. The stock enjoyed a charmed run early on, surging from 11c in 2012 to $1.30 in 2013, but fell spectacularly in 2014 when it revealed it had failed to secure a price increase from global jeweller Tiffany & Co that it had already factored into its profit forecasts. Its shares never recovered, and last traded at just 0.7c prior to its delisting.
The company, chaired by former stockbroker Alexandre Alexander, also came under fire for its handling of the closure of Ellendale. The liquidators appointed to the Kimberley subsidiary that held Ellendale used a legal loophole to shift responsibility for the clean-up to the state government’s industry-funded mining rehabilitation fund.
The rehabilitation costs at Ellendale have been estimated at between $28m and $40m. WA’s new Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston has flagged an overhaul to prevent “rogue elements” taking advantage of the MRF.
Source: TheAustralian.com.au
De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) is reportedly appealing to the Pretoria High Court in South Africa to set aside a decision by the South African Minister of Minerals Mosebenzi Zwane requiring DBCM to pay a levy on diamonds exported from South Africa to Botswana for the purpose of aggregation.
Although DBCM is apparently eligible for an exemption from this levy, even exceeding the required criteria, and has received such exemption every year since it was enacted in 2008, Mining Weekly reports that the Minister has made a decision to deny them the exemption for the 2017/18 period.
DBCM is now therefore taking the matter before the Pretoria High Court, asking them to set aside the Minister’s decision, reports the news source.
