News – Page 50 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Petra to sell 32-ct Pink Diamond from Re-opened Mine

Petra is to offer a 32.32-carat pink diamond at its first tender of goods from the Williamson mine, in Tanzania following a Covid-enforced closure.

The stone is among 26,000 carats that will be offered in Antwerp from 19 to 26 November.
The London-based miner classified Williamson as “an asset held for sale for financial reporting purposes” after a a debt-for-equity restructuring.
The open-pit mine was mothballed in April 2020 to “preserve its liquidity, at a time when diamond pricing was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic”. Operations resumed in Q1 FY 2022.

Source: IDEX

20-Carat ‘Okavango Blue’ Diamond Goes on Display

The public can now feast their eyes on a big blue diamond thanks to New York’s American Museum of Natural History. The museum opened an exhibition Tuesday showcasing the “Okavango Blue,” a 20.46-carat oval-cut fancy deep blue diamond on loan from Okavango Diamond Company, which is wholly owned by the government of Botswana.

It has been given a VVS1 clarity grade from GIA. The diamond came from Botswana’s Orapa mine and is the largest of its kind found in the country to date. The Okavango Blue was named after Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of global importance for biological conservation and diversity. It’s the first time the diamond is on view to the public and sits at the center of a larger presentation about diamonds from Botswana, exploring industrial uses for diamonds and how Botswana runs its diamond industry as well as educating about the different characteristics of diamonds like size, shape, color, and quality. Botswana is the second-largest producer of natural diamonds in the world, behind Russia. Previous

The Okavango Blue Diamond, pictured here in the center display, is part of a presentation about the variety of natural diamonds found in Botswana. (Photo credit: D. Finnin/©AMNH) — The Okavango Blue Diamond, pictured here in the center display

Next “Our natural diamond resources are managed responsibly in a manner that puts the people of Botswana first,” said Okavango Diamond Company Managing Director Mmetla Masire. “There is a strong sense of local pride knowing that these diamonds are improving the lives of Batswana, with profits directly reinvested in education, infrastructure, and public health. “We are so pleased to share with the world the larger story of the diamond industry of Botswana. The Okavango Blue is not just an ordinary 3-billion-year-old polished carbon element, but rather a physical embodiment of the passing of time, a fragment of eternity. Our diamonds tell the rich history and unique journey of Botswana’s development.” The exhibition sits in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery in the museum’s new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, which reopened in June after a major renovation. The Okavango Blue and its corresponding Botswana diamonds exhibition will run for six months, AMNH confirmed.

Source: nationaljeweler

Marie Antoinette Diamonds Shatter Estimate

Two diamond bracelets belonging to Marie Antoinette more than doubled their high estimate at a recent Christie’s auction in Geneva.

The set, made by Boehmer in 1776 and passed down through Marie Antoinette’s family for 250 years, fetched $8.2 million at Tuesday’s Magnificent Jewels sale, Christie’s said. That figure is the second-highest price for a jewel owned by the French queen and the highest price ever garnered for one of her diamond pieces. In 2018, Sotheby’s sold a natural-pearl and diamond pendant belonging to Marie Antoinette for $36.2 million against its $2 million high estimate.

In total, the November 9 auction raked in $59 million, with 11 lots fetching more than $1 million.

Other notable items sold at the auction include a pear brilliant-cut, 55.50-carat, D-color, potentially internally flawless diamond, which went for $5.3 million, or $95,700 per carat, at the high end of its estimate. A cushion-shaped Burmese ruby and diamond brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels brought in $4.6 million at the auction, smashing its CHF 600,000 ($656,756) upper valuation.

An oval brilliant-cut, 43.19-carat, D-color, internally flawless diamond ring garnered $3.6 million, representing $83,000 per carat — within estimates. A rectangular-cut, 42.98-carat, fancy-vivid-yellow diamond fetched $3.1 million, in the middle of its presale valuation, while a fancy-light-pink and colorless diamond brooch by Harry Winston hammered for $2.3 million, just over its lower estimate.

However, a ring featuring a heart modified brilliant-cut, 6.75-carat, fancy-vivid-purple-pink, SI1-clarity diamond failed to find a buyer. The piece was estimated to bring in up to $10.9 million at the auction. A ruby bangle by Cartier, the first anniversary gift Wallis SImpson, the Duchess of Windsor, received from her husband, also remained unsold. That piece had a high valuation of $2.2 million.

In total, Christie’s sold 93% of items on offer, with bidders hailing from 32 countries.

“A very dynamic saleroom, coupled with strong online and telephone bids from around the world, resulted in lively bidding and a very high sell-through rate,” said Rahul Kadakia, international head of jewelry at Christie’s. “Marie Antoinette’s diamonds captured the world’s attention and achieved a fitting result for such a magnificent royal jewel.”

Source: Diamonds.net

India Draws Up Rules to Prevent Certificate Fraud

Industry leaders in India have published draft rules aimed at stopping members from selling diamonds with false grading reports.

The new Diamond Charter calls for tight measures to prevent the misuse of certificates. It also requires companies to take action to stem the circulation of grading reports that are not attached to a stone.

The document, which the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) posted on its website last week, mandates ethical conduct and grants powers to punish those who misbehave. It is currently at the consultation stage, and could go into effect next month, GJEPC executive director Sabyasachi Ray told Rapaport News Monday.

The draft calls for participation by the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) and the Mumbai Diamond Merchants’ Association (MDMA), as well as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the International Gemological Institute (IGI), HRD Antwerp, Gemological Science International (GSI) and the Gemmological Institute of India (GII). Those organizations will also set up a committee to enforce the rules among members, it says.

The move follows increased demand for grading and a string of fraud cases involving natural stones carrying reports pertaining to lower-quality or synthetic goods.

“[Since] lab-grown diamonds came into the market, above [0.30 carats], no natural diamond is sold without a certification,” Ray explained. “This [underpins] the value of the diamond.”

The rules require grading institutions to give each diamond a unique identification number and a corresponding laser inscription when they receive it for certification, and to keep an accessible online archive of reports. They also compel labs to offer free verification services at major trading centers and maintain records of know-your-customer (KYC) documents.

Meanwhile, bourses must remind their members that trading of a certificate without the sale of a diamond is illegal, according to the charter.

The guidelines also govern what happens if a seller has multiple grading reports from different labs for the same stone and only wishes to give the buyer one of them. In this case, the seller should return the remaining certificates to the lab or destroy them within 30 days so misuse of the document is impossible, the charter continues.

It also calls on diamond buyers to verify the certificate’s authenticity using the relevant lab’s online database.

The boards of the BDB and the GJEPC have approved the charter, with members of exchanges and the general public now able to comment on the draft before November 16, Ray said. Depending on feedback, implementation could happen by December 1, he added.

“Our understanding is that the charter is in draft; we look forward to learning more about it,” a GIA spokesperson said. “For many years, GIA has supported the efforts of trade bodies, including the GJEPC, in addressing issues of importance to the trade and to advance consumer protections.”

While grading fraud has been an issue for years, the phenomenon has become especially common since the rise of lab-grown diamonds.

In August, police in India discovered a scam in which people had sold low-quality diamonds bearing counterfeit certificates, a number of them involving forged GIA report numbers. Some of the stones were lab-grown but carried natural-diamond reports.

In May, the GIA reported a rise in submissions of lab-grown diamonds with counterfeit inscriptions.

Clarification, November 9, 2021: This article has been updated to clarify that not all the named organizations have signed up to the charter, which is still in a draft stage. A quote from the GIA has also been added.

Source: Diamonds.net

Portuguese UN peacekeepers accused of helping to smuggle diamonds, gold and drugs out of Central African Republic

*The Central African Republic has hosted UN peacekeepers for years*

A “handful” of Portuguese peacekeepers may have been involved in smuggling gold, diamonds and drugs out of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The soldiers, part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country, are alleged to have been part of a crime ring that used military planes to transport the illicit goods to Portugal, the office of the Portuguese Armed Forces Chief of Staff said in a statement.

More than 300 inspectors raided nearly 100 properties in Portugal as part of the investigation, police said on Monday.

Officers said the “criminal network” had international links and 10 people have been arrested so far – some of them ex-military. They are likely to appear in court this week.

The Portuguese military said officials became aware of the alleged crime ring in December 2019, along with suspicions that some of its soldiers may have been used as couriers.

More stringent checks have been put in place for soldiers returning to Portugal after peacekeeping missions.

Supporters of a presidential candidate in CAR ride on a flatbed lorry, in an incident unrelated to the crash
At least 78 people killed as truck flips in the Central African Republic In a statement, military officials said: “The armed forces totally repudiate these behaviors which contradict the values of the military institution.”

Portugal’s defence minister Joao Gomes Cravinho said: “Everything suggests that these were activities undertaken on their own initiative by a handful of soldiers and not something systemic.”

Hundreds of Portuguese soldiers have been deployed in the CAR over the past few years, as the country struggles with violence that worsened after a coalition of rebels seized power in 2013.

It is rich in gold and diamonds but it is also one of the poorest countries in the world.

Source: Skynews

Russian royal gems, rare coloured diamonds on Geneva auction block

Russian royal jewels smuggled out of the country during the 1917 revolution, alongside rare coloured diamonds, are on offer at auction next week in Geneva, looking for deep-pocketed collectors emerging from the pandemic.

An orange-pink diamond weighing 25.62 carats, estimated at 3.6 million to 5.38 million Swiss francs ($3.9 million to $5.9 million), set in a ring, is the star lot at auction house Sotheby’s semi-annual jewellery sale in the Swiss city on Nov. 10.

“A beautiful crystal, it’s a fantastic colour with a little bit of orange but not too much, so it’s a very subtle colour,” Olivier Wagner, head of sale and jewellery expert at Sotheby’s Geneva, told Reuters in the showroom in a lakeside hotel.

“The market is currently very dynamic and after the pandemic people are very keen to buy jewellery today and to buy something tangible they can enjoy.”

For collectors of historic gems, a large oval sapphire and diamond brooch and matching earclips from the jewellery box of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the aunt of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, is back on the block.

“They belonged to the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia who was the queen of social life in St. Petersburg. She was the wife of the Grand Duke Vladimir, so the son of the tsar (Alexander II), and she had a fantastic collection of jewels,” Wagner said.

The royal set, entrusted to her friend the British diplomat Albert Henry Stopford, who took them to London for safekeeping along with other jewels, is estimated at 280,000-480,000 francs, the auction house said.

Pavlovna escaped from revolutionary Russia and died in France in 1920. Her brooch and earrings are being sold by a European princely family who bought them at auction in 2009, the auction house said.

Source: reuters

Travis Scott gifts Kylie Jenner and Stormi matching diamond rings

*Kylie Jenner and their daughter Stormi with some new bling*

On Tuesday, Kylie Jenner revealed that the “Sicko Mode” rapper, 29, gifted her and the couple’s 3 year old daughter, Stormi Webster, a set of matching diamond rings.

The mommy and me sparklers each feature a pear cut stone nestled next to an princess cut diamond, in a “Toi et Moi” style.

“Daddy got us matching rings,” Jenner, 24, captioned a photo of her hand next to Stormi’s.

And Khloé wasn’t the only one impressed by the sparklers; Mike Fried, CEO of The Diamond Pro, told Page Six Style that the bling is worth some serious cash.

“These matching rings are absolutely stunning due to their unique design and presentation of the diamonds,” he said. “Kylie’s enormous diamonds look to be 5 or 6 carats each, with an estimated value of $325,000 for both. Stormi’s diamonds appear to be 1.5 carats each, with an estimated value of $120,000 for both.”

Number of US Jewelry Businesses Decreases

*A white gold ring, necklace and earrings with diamonds*

The industry continued to downsize in the US in the third quarter, according to the latest data from the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT).

Some 113 businesses exited the sector during the three months ending September 30, compared with 101 in the same period a year earlier, the figures showed Friday. In total, the number of companies active in the US industry fell 1.9% year on year to 23,984.

Bankruptcies dropped to zero from nine a year earlier, while closures due to consolidation — mergers, acquisitions and similar transactions — declined to 28 from 37 a year before. However, 85 companies left the industry for other reasons that the JBT does not specify, up from 55 for the same quarter in 2020.

Source: Diamonds.net

Final Argyle Pink Tender Sees Record Result

Rio Tinto achieved record-breaking figures at its 2021 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender, with prices strong amid dwindling supply from the mine.

The Australian miner offered 70 rare pink and red diamonds at the last-ever edition of the tender, which follows Argyle’s closure in November 2020. The “historical” collection, called The Journey Beyond, comprised the final diamonds mined during the Western Australian deposit’s last year of operation, Rio Tinto said Thursday.

“The 2021 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender delivered a record-breaking price performance across individual diamonds and for the overall collection,” the company noted. “The diamonds were fiercely contested around the world in a series of virtual and face-to-face viewings.”

A total of 19 bidders from nine countries successfully acquired lots, with prices maintaining their upward trajectory, Rio Tinto explained. Australian jeweler Calleija bought several stones, including the Argyle Eclipse, a radiant-shaped, 3.47-carat, fancy-intense-pink diamond, and the Argyle Bohème, a radiant-shaped, 1.01-carat, fancy-red diamond.

A veteran bidder in Singapore took home both the Argyle Stella, a square radiant-shaped 1.79-carat, fancy-vivid-purplish-pink diamond, and the Argyle Solaris, a radiant-shaped, fancy-intense pink weighing 2.05 carats. Another, based in the US, won the Argyle Lumiere, a square radiant-shaped, 2.03-carat, fancy-deep-pink diamond.

Alongside the pink-diamond tender, Rio Tinto sold a record-breaking collection of 41 blue and violet diamonds from Argyle to a single buyer. Hong Kong fancy-color specialist Kunming Diamonds purchased the entire 24.88-carat lot in a “history-making global bid” at the separate Once in a Blue Moon tender, the miner said. The stones are the final blues to come from Argyle. Kunming also won nine pink lots.

“I don’t think it’s ever been so competitive, so mind-blowing in terms of how the prices have been, how much competition we faced, and there was a lot of emotional premium everyone added, as this was the ultimate tender,” Harsh Maheshwari, executive director of Kunming, told Rapaport News. “So I guess everyone felt that they would like to at least own a few tender stones while they had the opportunity.”

It’s rare for there to be so many successful bidders at the pink tender, Maheshwari noted. Usually, only half that number would take home diamonds.

“This basically shows how varied the prices must have been, and that these stones went to jewelers from all over the world,” Maheshwari added.

Source: Diamonds.net

Lucapa Sales Surge in Buoyant Market

Lucapa Diamond Company’s revenue rose in the third quarter amid strong demand and an increase in sales volume.

Sales from the miner’s Lulo deposit in Angola and Mothae in Lesotho soared 86% to $8.6 million for the three months ending September 30, it said last week. Sales volume jumped 57% to 15,690 carats, outweighing a 14% drop in the average price to $995 per carat.

“The market for diamonds continued to be buoyant in a constrained rough-supply environment,” said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall. “As a result, we have upgraded our full-year guidance.”

Production from Lulo increased 1% year on year during the quarter to 9,444 carats, with the miner recovering 83 diamonds above 10.8 carats. The largest of those was a 94-carat, D-color, type IIa white stone. Lucapa also unearthed several fancy-pink diamonds during the quarter, it noted.

Output from Mothae came to 9,567 carats, with 60 diamonds weighing more than 10.8 carats. The Australia-based miner recovered a 51-carat stone, along with a number of fancy-light pinks and yellows. Lucapa did not produce any rough from Mothae during the same period last year, as the site was on care and maintenance due to Covid-19-related regulations in Lesotho.

Lucapa has made progress toward satisfying the conditions for its acquisition of the Merlin mine in Australia. It believes the final outstanding conditions will be dealt with in the fourth quarter.

The company upgraded its guidance for the full year due to the strong demand. It expects revenue to be between AUD 66 million ($48.9 million) and AUD 71 million ($52.6 million), compared to the AUD 50 million ($37 million) to AUD 56 million ($41.5 million) it forecast in May.

The miner is also conducting exploration at the Brooking lamproite project in Australia and the Orapa site in Botswana.

Image: A selection of rough white, pink and yellow diamonds sold during the quarter.

Source: Diamonds.net