News – Page 62 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

US Demand, Uncertain Supply Buoy Diamond Prices

Diamond trading was stable in May despite concerns about inflation, rising interest rates and slumping stock markets. Polished prices initially declined but later steadied as dealers anticipated supply shortages resulting from Russian sanctions.

The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI™) for 1-carat diamonds slid 0.5% in May but was 9.3% higher on June 1 than at the beginning of the year.

RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI™)
	May	Year to date Jan. 1 to June 1	Year on year June 1, 2020, to June 1 2021
RAPI 0.30 ct.	0.6%	1.3%	-0.1%
RAPI 0.50 ct.	-0.3%	5.8%	8.2%
RAPI 1 ct.	-0.5%	9.3%	22.1%
RAPI 3 ct.	-0.3%	10.6%	25.7%

US demand is supporting the market even as economic uncertainty sets in. Expectations are rising for the Las Vegas shows, which begin June 8. Dealers hope the positive sentiment will boost trading in the second half of the year. Chinese wholesalers remain cautious as activity resumes after the country’s Covid-19 lockdowns.

Inventory levels are high but have decreased in select categories. The number of diamonds on RapNet stood at 1.8 million as of June 1, up 43% from a year earlier. The quantity of 0.30-carat, D- to H-color, IF- to VS-clarity goods fell 14% in May; 0.50-carat diamonds in the same range declined 11%. Both categories were still significantly above last year’s levels.

While the sanctions on Russian goods have not yet caused notable polished scarcities, shortages are likely in the coming months. Rough supply has dropped since Alrosa canceled its March and April sales. Prices at rough auctions have increased — particularly in the small-diamond category, which Alrosa dominates. De Beers raised prices of small rough at its latest sight from June 6 to 10.

The market is splitting into two segments: Russian and non-Russian goods. Some big cutters are finding ways to buy Alrosa rough in order to serve centers that remain open to buying Russian-origin polished. These diamonds will likely sell at a discount to non-sanctioned ones.

US and European jewelers and brands may have difficulty filling their sourcing requirements in the coming months without Russian supply. This will lend further support to diamond prices.

Source: Diamonds.net

Rio Tinto Launches Business for Argyle Pinks

*Diamonds from Rio Tinto’s Argyle Pink Diamond Tender.*

Rio Tinto has debuted a new strategy that will enable it to “protect the provenance” of its Argyle pink diamonds, including a certification service and a concierge trading platform.

“This is the start of a new chapter for Argyle pink diamonds, to ensure they maintain their value and investment potential as a finite, unrepeatable natural resource and achieve the status of outstanding heritage diamonds,” Rio Tinto Minerals CEO Sinead Kaufman said last week.

The venture will also play host to a new Beyond Rare tender platform for special sales events, as well as several strategic collections and collaborations involving existing inventory and the secondary market.

One such venture, the Icon Partner program, will give jewelers licensing rights to use the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand for jewelry they create with any remaining inventory they previously purchased from the Argyle mine. The first two retailers Rio Tinto has authorized are John Calleija, the owner of Australian luxury-jewelry house Calleija, and Singapore-based Glajz THG, owned by John Glajz.

“The secondary market for Argyle pink diamonds comprises almost 40 years of rare, polished pink diamonds, together with heirloom pieces of jewelry, collectibles and objects,” the miner noted. “This market requires careful management to preserve the precious provenance of Argyle pink diamonds and continue the legacy of careful custody that underscores its rarity.

Source; Diamonds.net

Gem Diamonds unearths 125-carat diamond in Lesotho

Africa-focused Gem Diamonds has found a 125 carat rough stone at its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the miner’s second rock over 100 carats mined this year.

The company, known for the recovery of large, high quality stones in 2020, has seen output of high quality diamonds surpassing the 100 carat mark become less frequent over the past year.

In 2021, Gem Diamonds found only six of such diamonds at Letšeng, compared to the 16 it discovered in 2020.

The find comes as prices for small diamonds have jumped about 20% since the start of March, as cutters, polishers and traders struggle to source stones outside Russia.

State owned Russian miner Alrosa, the world’s top diamond producer by output, was hit with US sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Higher prices for lower end stones are good news for miners, but not a game changer, experts say. While every mine is different, a general rule is that 20% of production the best stones account for about 80% of profits.

Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, the company has found more than 60 white gem quality diamonds over 100 carats each, with 16 of them recovered last year. At an average elevation of 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.

Source: mining.com

DRC Embarks on Mine-to-Market Program for Artisanal Diamond Miners

The first steps towards setting up a traceability program have been taken in Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), which dominates the world’s supply of diamonds from artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).

A pilot project involving Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the DRC mining ministry and tech company Everledger aims to establish a fully transparent value chain in a country which has a diamond sector vulnerable to human rights violations, poor working conditions, corruption and opaque or illicit trade.
The project, called OrigemA, is initially being funded by the AWDC and will focus on transparency, sustainability and fair trade.
The DRC is the largest producer of artisanal mined diamonds in the world, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of global ASM production, which in turn constitutes an estimated 15 to 20% of the total diamond production in the world.
DRC’s mining minister Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi said stakeholders “will work with the other partners to create a legal and fiscal framework that allows efficient formalization, combatting corruption, eradicating logistical hurdles, and increasing transparency in financial and fiscal flows.”
Karen Rentmeesters, AWDC’s head of industry relations, said: “This bottom-up, collaborative approach ensures that we create a model that considers the realities of artisanal, small-scale mining in remote regions and that the resulting blueprint can be scaled up and replicated in the field.”

Source: idexonline

Two Diamonds over 100ct. to Lead Sotheby’s NY

Sotheby’s will offer two diamonds weighing more than 100 carats at its upcoming jewelry sale, with one expected to fetch in excess of $10 million.

The Juno diamond, a pear-shaped, 101.41-carat, D-color, internally flawless, type IIa stone, will lead the June 16 New York Magnificent Jewels sale, the auction house said last week. Only 11 D-color diamonds over 100 carats have ever been sold at auction, Sotheby’s noted.

That stone will be joined by the Earth Star, a pear-shaped, 111.59-carat, fancy-deep-orange-brown diamond, which has returned to the auction block for the first time in nearly 40 years. The piece, which is the second-largest diamond of its color, cut and size to be offered at an auction, carries a high estimate of $2.5 million.

the Earth Star diamond — *The Earth Star diamond*

Designer David Webb has created a custom mounting for the stone, which was fashioned from a 248-carat rough discovered at the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa in 1967. The setting uses azurmalachite to resemble the Earth as seen from the perspective of a star, Sotheby’s explained.

Other notable items include an emerald-cut, 26.06-carat, D-color, VVS1-clarity diamond ring by Kwiat, which is estimated at up to $3 million, and a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings. The set features two pear-shaped, D-flawless diamonds weighing 4.09 and 4.12 carats; two emerald-cut, D-color diamonds weighing 3.19 and 3.17 carats; and two Kashmir sapphires weighing 9.65 and 9.44 carats. It is predicted to realize up to $3 million. Meanwhile, an Indian-inspired emerald and diamond fringe necklace by Cartier made in 1945 has a price tag of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

Source: Diamonds.net

IGI Grades Largest Polished Lab-Grown Diamond

*The three lab-grown diamonds from Greenlab*

The International Gemological Institute (IGI) has graded a 27-carat lab-grown stone that it claims is the world’s largest polished synthetic diamond.

Indian lab-grown company Greenlab created the marquise step-cut, 27.27-carat diamond, named Om, IGI said Wednesday. The stone, which has no color enhancement, was grown using chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

Along with Om, the IGI graded two additional lab-grown stones submitted by Greenlab, including Shivaya, an emerald-cut diamond weighing 20.24 carats, and Namah, a pear rose-cut, 15.16-carat polished. Greenlab plans to display the diamonds at the JCK Las Vegas show, it noted.

Previously, the largest known polished CVD diamond was a princess-cut, 16.41-carat, G-color, VVS2-clarity stone created by Shanghai Zhengshi Technology. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) graded the stone in January.

At the time, the largest polished lab-grown diamond of any sort the GIA had examined was a cushion-cut, 20.23-carat, fancy-vivid-yellowish-orange, VS2-clarity diamond created using the High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) method in 2019.

Source: Diamonds.net

Gem Diamonds finds 129-carat diamond in Lesotho

Africa focused Gem Diamonds has found a 129 carat rough stone at its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the miner’s first one over 100 carats mined this year.

The high quality white diamond was recovered at the site over the weekend, Gem Diamonds said. The company, known for the recovery of large, high quality stones in 2020, has seen output of those diamonds become less frequent over the past year.

In 2021, Gem Diamonds found only six diamonds over 100 carats at Letšeng. This compares to 16 rocks of more than 100 carats discovered in 2020.

The find comes as prices for small diamonds have jumped about 20% since the start of March, as cutters, polishers and traders struggle to source stones outside Russia.

State-owned Alrosa, the world’s top diamond producer by output, was hit with US sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Higher prices for lower end stones are good news for miners, but not a game changer, experts say. While every mine is different, a general rule of thumb is that 20% of production the best stones account for about 80% of profits.

Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, Gem Diamonds has found more than 60 white gem quality diamonds over 100 carats each.

Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, the company has found more than 60 white gem quality diamonds over 100 carats each, with 16 of them recovered last year.

At an average elevation of 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.

Source: mining.com

Lucapa says 204 carat diamond recovered at Mothae mine in Lesotho

Lucapa Diamond Company yesterday announced the recovery of a 204 carat diamond from the Mothae mine in Lesotho.

According to the company’s statement, the 204 carat white stone is the eighth +100 carat diamond and third +200 carat to be recovered from the Mothae mine since commercial mining commenced in January 2019, underlining its unique large stone nature.

Lucapa Diamond Company is an ASX listed diamond miner and explorer with assets in Africa and Australia. It has interests in two producing diamond mines in Angola (Lulo) and Lesotho (Mothae).

“The large, high-value diamonds produced from these two niche African diamond mines attract some of the highest prices per carat for rough diamonds globally,” the company said.

The Lulo mine has been in commercial production since 2015, while the Mothae mine commenced commercial production in 2019.

Source: kitco

Botswana sees Russian diamond ban opening door to synthetic gems

*Mirny, Sakha Republic, Russian Rough Dimaonds*

Botswana, Africa’s top diamond producer, sees a prolonged ban on Russian diamonds opening the way for synthetic gems to expand market share, the country’s minister told a mining conference on Monday.

The United States, the world’s largest market for natural diamonds, imposed sanctions on Russia’s state-controlled Alrosa in April, aiming to cut off a source of revenue for Moscow after its February invasion of Ukraine.

Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, accounted for about 30% of global output in 2021.

Botswana’s Minister of Minerals and Energy Lefoko Moagi said the ban on Russia diamonds might push prices up to the benefit of rival producers but he also said the gap would be hard to fill.

“We see the 30% gap that will be left by the ban being plugged by something else that is not natural. And for us that will be a challenge,” he said.

Jacob Thamage, head of Botswana’s Diamond Hub, said uncertainty over the Ukraine conflict makes it difficult for Botswana and other natural diamond miners to fill the supply gap as ramping up operations requires significant investment.

“You don’t want to invest a lot of money to up-scale and then the war ends the next day,” Thamage said. “We also see the higher prices pushing consumers to substitutes such as the synthetics and this can cause problems for us if we cede the market to unnatural stones.”

Sales at Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American unit De Beers and Botswana’s government, accounts for almost all of Botswana diamonds exports. These stood at $3.466 billion in 2021 compared with $2.120 billion in 2020.

Thamage also fears that consumers might start to shun natural diamonds due to traceability issues.

“There is an increased fear that buyers of diamonds will begin to treat all natural diamonds as conflict diamonds and therefore shift to unnatural diamonds,” he said.

Source: mining.com

Diamond prices are spiking and even De Beers can’t fill the gap

*Alrosa canceled its last sale in April and is unlikely to sell any large volumes again this month*

Prices are surging in some corners of the rough-diamond market, as sanctions on one of the world’s two giant miners ripple through the supply chain. In the past, the industry could turn to behemoth De Beers to crank out extra gems when supply ran tight — but not this time.

The price of a small rough diamond, the type that would end up clustered around the solitaire stone in a ring, has jumped about 20% since the start of March, according to people familiar with the matter. The reason: Diamond cutters, polishers and traders are struggling to source stones after the US levied sanctions on De Beers’s Russian rival, Alrosa PJSC, which accounts for about a third of global production.

For most of the modern history of diamonds, this is the sort of situation where De Beers could have tapped its vast stockpiles or simply fired up latent mining capacity. Little more than 20 years ago, its safes in London held stocks of diamonds worth perhaps as much as $5 billion.

Those days are now long gone. The company only carries working inventory stocks and its mines are running at full tilt. There is little chance of material increases in supply before 2024, when an expansion at its flagship South African mine will be completed.

“It’s very difficult to see us bringing on any new production,” Chief Executive Officer Bruce Cleaver said in an interview in Cape Town. “Thirty percent of supply being removed isn’t sustainable.”

De Beers also produces relatively few of the type of diamonds Alrosa specializes in: the small and cheap gems that surround a larger center-point stone or are used in lower-end jewelry sold in places like Walmart or Costco.

For many in the sector, that means growing shortages unless Alrosa and its trade buyers can find a work around.

Alrosa canceled its last sale in April and is unlikely to sell any large volumes again this month, the people said. It’s uncertain when the company will be able to sell normally again, they said, even as the company, banks and buyers look for solutions.

Source: mining.com