The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) recently graded the largest known synthetic diamond to be created using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), it claimed Wednesday.
The stone, produced by Shanghai Zhengshi Technology, is a princess-cut, 16.41 carat, G colour, VVS2 clarity lab grown diamond. Spectroscopic readings the GIA performed confirmed the stone had no post growth treatments to improve the color, it noted.
“The first CVD diamond I examined in 2003 was a 0.23 carat pear shape, with clear brown colour,” said Wuyi Wang, GIA vice president of research and development. “This 16.41 carat laboratory grown diamond demonstrates the advances in CVD growth technology. This achievement has important implications for the many scientific and industrial applications for high quality laboratory grown diamonds.”
The previous record for a synthetic diamond grown using CVD was held by an emerald cut, 14.60 carat, F colour, VS2 clarity diamond, which was produced in India and graded by the International Gemological Institute (IGI). Meanwhile, the record for the largest lab grown diamond the GIA has examined was in 2019 for a cushion cut, 20.23 carat, fancy vivid yellowish orange, VS2 clarity stone made using High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT).
Jwaneng, the richest diamond mine in the world by value, is Debswana’s flagship mine, contributing 60% to 70% of the company’s total revenue.
Sales of rough diamonds by Debswana Diamond Company jumped 64% in 2021, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed on Monday, driven by the reopening of key global consumer markets.
The total value of Debswana’s diamond exports stood at $3.466 billion in 2021 compared with $2.120 billion in 2020, the central bank data showed.
Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American unit De Beers and Botswana’s government, sells 75% of its output to De Beers with the balance taken up by the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company.
Debswana sales fell by 30% in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand while global travel restrictions impacted trading. Since mid-2020 De Beers has shifted some of its rough diamond viewings to international diamond centres such as Antwerp to cater for customers unable to travel to Gaborone.
“Demand for rough diamonds remained robust, with positive midstream sentiment and strong demand for diamond jewellery continuing over the holiday period, particularly in the key U.S. consumer market,” Anglo American said in a production update last Thursday.
Debswana accounts for almost all Botswana’s diamond exports, with Lucara Diamond Corp’s Karowe mine being the only other operating diamond mine in the country.
Botswana gets about 30% of its revenues and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings from diamonds. The southern African country expects its economy to have grown by 9.7% in 2021, after an 8.5% contraction in 2020.
Debswana’s production increased by 35% to 22.326 million carats in 2021 from 16.559 million carats in 2020, mostly due to higher-grade ore being treated at its flagship Jwaneng mine, Anglo American said.
Russia’s Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds and a competitor of De Beers, reported revenue jumped by 49% to $4.2 billion last year as demand exceeded supply.
By the end of summer 2021, park guests had found 255 diamonds, including four weighing over one carat. Autumn kicked off with a big surprise for one California couple, when Noreen Wredberg and her husband, of Granite Bay, visited the Crater of Diamonds for the first time.
Wredberg was walking on the north side of a central pathway through the search area on September 23 when she spotted something sparkling on top of the ground. Her find turned out to be the largest of the year, a 4.38-carat diamond about the size of a jellybean, with a pear shape and a lemonade yellow color. Wredberg named her gem after her husband’s kitten, calling it Lucy’s Diamond.
The three most common colors of diamonds found at the Crater are white, brown, and yellow. 248 diamonds registered last year were white (weighing 28.6 carats), 54 were brown (16.67 carats), and 52 were yellow (17.02 carats). Interestingly, all nine of the largest diamonds found last year were yellow or brown in color.
The diamond industry lost one of its most respected experts in large stones with the passing of Johnny Kneller last week at age 75.
Together with Brian Gutkin and Laurence Graff, Kneller was a partner in the manufacturing firm Safdico, where he handled some of the world’s most famous diamonds. Those included the Lesotho Promise, the Peace Diamond, and the Lesedi La Rona, his son-in-law Yves Alexis noted.
“He was an icon in the industry,” Gutkin stressed. “People sought his advice on large stones, colored diamonds, D-flawlesses because he had a unique understanding of these goods.”
And he was always happy to give of himself, Gutkin added. “It was impossible to walk with him through the Antwerp bourse, as people would gravitate toward him. Everyone loved him.”
Born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, in 1946, Kneller grew up in Antwerp and eased into the diamond trade through his father, who was a diamantaire and a De Beers sightholder specializing in large stones. Kneller also worked as a dealer and started traveling to South Africa to buy polished in the early 1980s. During that time, he met Gutkin and the two formed a partnership that became Safdico, Gutkin recalled.
Starting with only seven people, the company grew to become one of the most consistent sightholders for large goods. At its peak, Safdico employed 237 people at its Johannesburg factory and 120 in Botswana, according to Gutkin.
Kneller was extremely savvy in business and not averse to taking calculated risks, Gutkin and Alexis agreed. It was his initiative around 1998 to bring on board Graff, with whom he had a relationship and who had traded diamonds with Kneller’s father. The partnership made Safdico one of the first diamond manufacturers to forge an alliance with an established high-end jeweler.
“Johnny Kneller was a best friend as well as my business partner in our diamond-manufacturing business.” Graff wrote in a tribute provided to Rapaport News. “A man that put all others before himself, we were friends for 50 years and traveled together to Belgium, Africa and the US — and of course to many of the diamond sights.”
Kneller’s knowledge of the rough and polished diamond business was almost unmatched, Graff continued. “He had an uncanny way of discovering gems, in rough or polished, which ended up in our retail stores across the world,” he added.
Kneller’s eye for fine gems extended to art as well. He was a keen collector of contemporary works and had a solid background across many periods — a passion he shared with Graff.
But it was ultimately his expertise and love of diamonds that set him apart within the trade. “He really loved the stones, the material, to see the color [and] appreciate the cut, life and sparkle of the stones,” Alexis recalled.
His business partners echoed that sentiment.
“He lived and breathed diamonds all his life,” Graff concluded. “For me he was the greatest diamond dealer I have ever known.”
Kneller is survived by his wife, Delly, two daughters Katya and Julie, and six grandchildren.
Manufacturer Diacore has purchased a rough pink diamond weighing 32.32 carats for $13.8 million.
The stone originated from Petra Diamonds’ Williamson mine in Tanzania, Diacore said last week. It was among the goods Petra offered at its first tender of Williamson rough since the resumption of operations at the site following a near two-year shutdown due to Covid-19. Diacore will analyze, design and cut the diamond.
“This rare masterpiece of nature is a natural fit to our unique offering as cutters and marketers of special diamonds,” said Diacore chairman Nir Livnat.
The pink is not the first colored diamond Diacore has purchased from the miner. In July, it partnered with De Beers to buy a blue diamond of 39.34 carats from Petra’s Cullinan mine in South Africa for $40.2 million. Last year, the two bought five rough blue diamonds from the same deposit ranging from 9.61 to 25.75 carats for a combined $40.4 million.
In June, Diacore acquired a 204.36-carat, yellow diamond known as the Dancing Sun — the largest polished diamond of North American origin — for $5 million at a Christie’s auction in New York.
Sotheby’s will hold a sale dedicated to the works of René Lalique, featuring nearly 40 pieces collected over four decades.
The jewels, which make up a “rare museum-quality collection,” are all appearing at auction for the first time, Sotheby’s said last week. Assembled by Claude Sorbac, one of Lalique’s greatest fans, the grouping is set to go under the hammer on December 17 in Paris.
The Orchidée Cattleya comb, created between 1903 and 1905, is the star of the show. Sorbac bought the piece in 1976 from Lalique’s heirs. The largest of a series of three, and containing diamond-studded foliage, the comb is estimated at up to EUR 1.5 million ($1.7 million).
Other notable items include the Loving Swallows comb, made around 1905 or 1906, which was also purchased from the artist’s descendants. It is valued at EUR 400,000 to EUR 600,000 ($450,660 to $675,906).
Meanwhile, two glass, enamel and diamond necklaces will be up for sale. The first, named Frogs, carries an estimate of EUR 400,000 to EUR 600,000, while the second, called Dragonflies and Ferns, is valued at EUR 250,000 ($281,627) to EUR 400,000.
The Medusa necklace designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany
The Medusa necklace, one of the earliest pieces designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, sold for more than 18 times its high estimate at a recent Sotheby’s auction.
The piece, designed in 1904, was last seen at auction 78 years ago. It fetched $3.7 million against an upper estimate of $200,000 following 10 minutes of heated bidding, Sotheby’s said Wednesday. The pendant set a world auction record for a piece by the designer. In total, the December 7 Magnificent Jewels sale achieved $57.1 million, the second-highest figure for a jewelry auction at Sotheby’s New York.
Blue diamonds also performed well, with a cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut, 6.11-carat, fancy-intense-blue diamond ring garnering $8 million, or $1.3 million per carat, well above its high estimate. A ring bearing a cushion-cut, 3.01-carat, fancy-vivid-blue diamond flanked by two heart-shaped diamonds sold for $3.9 million, or $1.3 million per carat, within expectations.
Other notable items include a group of jewels from an American private collector, which features one of the largest private collections of Bulgari pieces ever to come to market, Sotheby’s noted. Some 93% of those items found buyers, realizing $9 million, above their combined $8.2 million high estimate.
Meanwhile, a ring set with a pear-shaped, 62.65-carat, D-color, VVS2-clarity diamond bracketed by two pear-shaped diamonds weighing 2.04 carats and 2.01 carats fetched $2.9 million, in the middle of its presale valuation. A ring containing a cut-cornered rectangular step-cut, 1.03-carat, fancy-red diamond framed by shield-shaped diamonds hammered for $2 million, the upper end of its estimate.
Sotheby’s sold 84% of goods on offer, with 68% of those achieving prices above their high estimates and 13 pieces going for more than $1 million. Participants came from more than 45 countries.
Sales of rough diamonds by Debswana Diamond Company jumped 73% in the first nine months of 2021, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed on Tuesday, driven by the reopening of U.S. and China’s consumer markets.
Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American business De Beers and the Botswana government, sells 75% of its output to De Beers, with the balance taken up by state-owned Okavango Diamond Company.
Debswana sales fell by 30% in 2020 as the covid-19 pandemic hit demand while global travel restrictions hurt trading.
Botswana closed its borders for eight months last year in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, effectively locking out foreign buyers from centres such as Mumbai, Antwerp and China, who traditionally travel to Gaborone 10 times a year to view and buy diamonds from De Beers.
Since mid-2020 De Beers has shifted some of its rough viewings to places closer to international diamond centres, such as Antwerp, to cater for customers unable to travel to Gaborone.
According to data published by the central bank, exports of diamonds from Debswana stood at $2.589 billion in the first nine months of the year compared with $1.498 billion in the same period last year.
Botswana makes about 30% of its revenue and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings from diamonds. While it has taken measures to diversify its dependence on a single commodity, diamond sales continue to be its main revenue earner.
De Beers’ sales softened by 4% in the current sales period, which ended last week, as Indian manufacturers closed factories ahead of the Diwali festival, though the company said diamond jewellery demand remained strong in the United States.
Investors were duped into handing over more than $1m to a man who claimed to own a diamond mine, say police in Australia.
He allegedly claimed to be the owner of a non-existent mine in Sierra Leone and offered his victims the opportunity to invest.
Once they paid an initial sum, he allegedly asked for equipment and various gifts for his employees – which he then sold.
One victim reportedly paid $730,000. Two others are understood to have “invested” at least $73,000 each.
A 42-year-old man from the South East Suburbs, Melbourne, has been charged with 150 deception related offences including obtaining property by deception between September 2017 to October 2021.
He’s been bailed to appear before the Melbourne Committal Court in February 2022.
Detective senior sergeant Jason Venturoni, of Victoria police, said: “Criminals involved in the deception of others are often convincing and take advantage of people’s trust to exploit others for their own financial gain.”
A blue diamond ring is among the top lots at the Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sale in New York next month. The piece contains a cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut, 6.11-carat, fancy-intense-blue, VS2-clarity diamond surrounded by round diamonds. It is estimated to bring in up to $6.5 million at the December 7 auction, Sotheby’s said Monday.
A cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut, 6.69-carat, fancy-intense-pink, VS2-clarity diamond ring with a high valuation of $6 million will also star in the sale, as will a cushion-cut, 3.01-carat, fancy-vivid-blue diamond. The stone, which is set in a ring and flanked by two heart-shaped diamonds, is expected to sell for up to $4.5 million.
Other notable items include a pear-shaped, 62.65-carat, D-color, VVS2-clarity diamond ring with a high price tag of $3.5 million, and an emerald-cut, 9.97-carat emerald and diamond ring with an upper valuation of $2.5 million.
An unmounted, heart-shaped, 15.01-carat, D-color, internally flawless diamond will also be up for grabs. The stone, which is being offered without reserve, has a high estimate of $2.5 million. Sotheby’s is collaborating with Brilliant & Black designer Lauren Harwell Godfrey to make a finished jewelry piece for the diamond, it noted. She has created two original designs that utilize her signature triangle inlay pattern — for a necklace and a ring.
Meanwhile, 30 jewels from an American private collector will also go under the hammer. The entire group is estimated at more than $6 million and includes one of the most significant collections of Bulgari pieces ever to come to market, Sotheby’s explained.
In total, the auction house will offer more than 200 lots, with the sale forecast to fetch as much as $70.1 million — the highest estimate for a New York Magnificent Jewels sale since December 2018, Sotheby’s added.
