The world’s largest pearl – weighing 27.65kg and valued at $98m is currently being displayed at a secret venue in Canada.
The Giga Pearl belongs to Toronto-based artist Abraham Reyes and is being shown as part of his Beneath The Surface exhibition of pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones.
The pearl was created 1,000 years ago by a giant clam, the largest of all bivalve molluscs (soft-bodied sea creatures with a hinged shell).
It has been certified by the GIA as the world’s largest natural blister pearl and holds the Guinness World Record.
Reyes inherited the pearl in 2019 from a great aunt after his grandfather bought it from a fisherman in the Philippines.
“I wanted to educate people about it,” Reyes said. “A lot of people don’t know that these giant clams exist because they’re endemic in the South Pacific. So this is something fascinating for people here in Toronto.”
The location of the Giga Pearl is being kept private for security reasons.
The Russian government could buy more rough diamonds from the state-run miner Alrosa, as it faces ongoing G7 sanctions and weak global demand.
The Finance Ministry says it will assess the situation after seeing second quarter results.
Alrosa last week reported a 77 per cent slump in profits for 2024 (down to $223m) and has said it could suspend some less profitable activities and lay off some of its 35,000 workers.
“As we have already said, it is possible that Gokhran will buy some of the stones, said Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseyev, according to a report by the privately-run Interfax news agency.
“At this stage, we are still observing the market dynamics, indeed, it is quite weak, but not much time has passed. In principle, the first quarter is rarely good.”
Alrosa has previously offloaded excess inventory to Gokhran, the Russian State Precious Metals and Gemstones Repository in times of weak demand.
During the financial crisis of 2009 Gokhran bought up $1bn of Alrosa’s diamonds. And it sold back millions of carats in 2022, when a surge in post-lockdown demand outstripped the miner’s production capacities.
Last November it said it would be selling a batch of rough diamonds, including its largest recovery in a decade – an irregular-shaped diamond weighing 390.7 carats
Jewelry from the collection of screen icon Elizabeth Taylor are to be sold at a Beverly Hills auction.
The highlight is a ruby, diamond, and gold necklace (pictured) with lion’s face design and matching earrings. Estimate $100,000 to $200,000.
There’s also a 1935 Art Deco emerald and diamond brooch – old mine-cut and European cut – mounted in platinum and gold, with an estimate of $20.000 to $30,000.
And a gold and diamond Star of David pendant necklace designed by Theo Fennell and marking her conversion to Judaism in 1959. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.
They’ll be offered for sale at Bold Luxury: The Limelight Edit auction by Julien’s Auctions, on 27 March 27 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, along with fashion and other items owned by Marilyn Monroe, Cher, Victoria Beckham and Amy Winehouse.
“Bold Luxury is not just an auction — it’s an invitation to step into the limelight and own a tangible piece of cultural history,” said Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien’s Auctions.
Diamond Foundry, which has just opened a lab grown factory in Trujillo, western Spain, is facing an environmental backlash over claims it uses more water than the entire 8,500-population town where it is located.
Residents at a meeting earlier this month were told the new facility, built with $85m of European Union cash, was estimated to consume more than 730,000 cubic meters of water annually.
The huge facility will produce at least 4m carats a year and create 300 jobs. But environmental groups are concerned about the factory’s water usage, which is, they say “completely unsustainable”.
“There would be enough water for the diamonds but the population of Trujillo would have to buy jugs at the supermarket to drink, shower, cook, etc,” says an article in
Diamond Foundry, a Silicon Valley startup with Leonardo Dicaprio, star of the Blood Diamond movie, among its backers, is valued at $1.8bn.
“The water supply to Diamond Foundry is, once again, also in question, as it would cause serious supply problems for drinking water for the population of Trujillo and its surroundings,” according to the El Salto local news website.
It says the building is one of the first industrial projects in the world powered entirely by solar electricity and insists it holds the necessary permits to use reclaimed water from local treatment plants.
Anglo American’s troubled ownership of the De Beers group was brought into fresh focus on Thursday as the mining company announced a fresh multibillion-dollar write-down of the diamond group it’s trying to restructure.
De Beers, which nearly 80 years ago introduced the masses to the immortal phrase “A diamond is forever,” has lost its shine in recent years amid declining demand for diamonds, partly a result of the growth of cheaper, allegedly more sustainable lab-grown alternatives, and also from declining demand in its crucial Chinese market.
Anglo announced a $2.9 billion write-down in the value of De Beers as part of its 2024 annual results on Thursday. It was the second valuation reduction in two years, after a $1.6 billion write-down in its 2023 earnings.
De Beers now has a book value of around $4 billion, meaning the company has more than halved from a 2023 valuation of $8.5 billion. The current valuation includes a $2 billion stockpile of diamonds it has struggled to shift amid the downturn in the industry.
“It’s been a bad year for rough diamond sales,” De Beers CEO Al Cook told the FT in December.
Lab-grown diamonds and Chinese issues Duncan Wanblad, Anglo’s CEO, described the 2024 trading conditions for rough diamonds as “extremely challenging,” citing high midstream inventory levels and depressed demand in China for a steep drop in sales in the second half of the year. Anglo expects to remove 10 million carats from planned production this year, after removing 6 million in 2024.
De Beers has faced an identity crisis amid a drop-off in demand for authentic diamonds. That has partly been driven by brewing demand for lab-grown diamonds.
The group entered the lab-grown business in 2018, aiming for sustainability-minded customers. However, that proposition aligned with their relative affordability has caused the product to cannibalize some of De Beers’ customers, and it exited that market in 2024.
Wanblad said the lab-grown headwinds were surmountable. John Heasely, Anglo American’s finance director, suggested the expected continued decline in prices for lab-grown diamonds would continue to bifurcate the two markets, reducing the chance of lab-grown diamonds cannibalizing the genuine market.
In China, which has reduced the cumulative demand for diamonds by 40% in the last two years, Heasley noted changing behavior among retailers was adding to its inventory headaches.
The finance director said retailers in the country had started selling their polished diamonds back into the midstream market to recoup some of their expenditure. This led midstream inventories to spike in the first half of 2024, keeping the company’s rough diamond inventory fixed.
Anglo restructures De Beers Anglo has sought to restructure De Beers into an independent operation, which could result in either a sale or an IPO of the diamond company.
However, this restructuring has been delayed owing to myriad industrial headwinds the company has faced.
Wanblad said of De Beers: “I’m really not expecting much traction or progress in the first half of this year.”
Wanblad says it has agreed a framework with the Botswana government, which is a 15% owner in De Beers, to help it potentially initiate a formal sale process after receiving several “unsolicited inbounds” for the diamond company.
Independent mining group Petra Diamonds, which owns and operates diamond mines in South Africa, has appointed two interim CEOs Vivek Gadodia and Juan Kemp to succeed Richard Duffy, who has resigned by mutual agreement and with immediate effect.
Gadodia will oversee all corporate matters of the group, while Kemp will oversee all operational matters.
At this point, they will not be appointed as directors.
Vivek joined Petra in 2021 with his roles having included planning and corporate planning executive and chief restructuring officer. He previously worked for Sasol in various engineering, project management and corporate positions over a 15-year period.
Kemp, meanwhile, joined Petra in 2009 when the company bought its flagship Cullinan mine from fellow miner De Beers.
Kemp was GM of the mine since 2011 before having been appointed as a chief technical officer in 2019 and operations executive for the Cullinan mine in 2024.
His earlier career included positions at De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti.
The appointments of the interim CEOs come as Petra struggles with lower earnings generation and high debt.
The company’s results for the six months ended December 31, 2024, reflect Petra’s progress in implementing cost reduction plans and smoothed capital profiles, despite weakness in the diamond market.
Petra managed to reduce its mining and processing costs from continuing operations by 19% year-on-year to $98-million.
However, the group’s revenue was also lower by 30% year-on-year, or $49-million, at $115-million owing to additional revenue of $50-million having been carried over from tenders into the prior comparable period.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation amounted to $15-million, which was lower than the $38-million adjusted Ebitda reported in the first half of the prior financial year.
The company’s basic loss a share from continuing operations was $0.30, or $0.13 on an adjusted basis.
Operational free cash inflow of $16-million in the six months under review compares with a $21-million outflow in the first half of the prior year, which Petra says largely reflects the impact of its cost reduction measures, capital smoothing and working capital management.
The lower revenue and earnings over the financial year of 2024, caused Petra to not meet its required leverage and interest cover covenant ratios in its revolving credit facility measured at December 31, 2024.
Petra has since obtained a waiver from the lender, Absa Bank, related to these covenant breaches, and is restarting engagements with lenders regarding the refinancing of its debt.
The group’s consolidated net debt was $215-million as at December 31, compared with $193-million at the end of June, owing to diamond market weakness and the timing of Petra’s tender sales.
Three tender sales took place during the first half of the 2025 financial year (the six months ended December 31), while four have been scheduled for the remainder of the financial year.
Petra realised an average price of $103/ct in the reporting period, which reflects the positive impact of product mix over the period offsetting the overall weaker diamond pricing environment.
OPERATIONS
The group has achieved cost reductions through sustainably lowering overheads and on-mine cost optimisation with limited impact to its operations.
Petra completed the sale of its interest in the Koffiefontein mine to the Stargems Group in the six months under review, which allowed the group to avoid closure-related costs of $23-million.
Petra also entered into an agreement in January to sell its interest in the Williamson mine, in Tanzania, to Pink Diamonds Investments for a headline consideration of $16-million.
The group expects the sale of its interest in the Williamson mine to be completed by the end of the calendar year.
The Finsch mine has transitioned into new production areas called 78-Level Phase 2, with steady operations having been reported over the past few months.
In turn, production from the CC1E zone at the Cullinan mine has also started in the interim period, while Petra continues to advance more extension projects at both of these mines, as well as life-of-mine plan reviews.
Petra intends to re-engage its lenders with a revised business plan and updated cost-savings initiatives, as part of its overall restructuring plan.
The group is targeting net free cashflow generation for the remainder of the financial year, as well as more efforts to make the company resilient to pricing weakness.
Botswana’s central bank left its main lending rate unchanged on Thursday, saying the economy was expected to operate below capacity and not generate demand-driven inflationary pressures because of a slump in the global diamond market.
The Bank of Botswana held its Monetary Policy Rate at 1.90% for the second policy meeting in a row. The rate is based on a seven-day instrument.
“The economy will contract this year primarily due to the downturn in the global diamond market and moderately recover next year,” central bank Governor Cornelius Dekop told a news conference.
The southern African country’s economy is largely dependent on the export of diamonds, and declining earnings from the precious stone have limited government spending.
The central bank also lowered its primary reserve requirement to 0% from 2.5% due to significantly reduced liquidity in the banking system.
Dekop said inflation was expected to average 2.9% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025, compared with forecasts of 2.8% and 3.1% given at the bank’s previous monetary policy meeting in November.
The Bank of Botswana prefers inflation between 3% and 6% over the medium term. Annual inflation stood at 1.6% in October.
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Botswana’s government is forecasting a recovery in the diamond market later this year, and a consequent expansion of the country’s economy.
It shrank by 3.1 per cent in 2024, but according to vice president and finance minister Ndaba Gaolathe it is now expected to grow 3.3 per cent in 2025.
“This growth outlook is premised on recovery of the diamond industry, which is expected in the latter part of 2025, and continued positive sentiment in the non-diamond mining sectors,” he said yesterday (10 February) in his budget speech for 2025/26.
Diamonds account for around 80 per cent of Botswana’s export earnings and a third of total budget revenues.
De Beers and the Botswana government have finally reached agreement on the long-term mining and rough sales deals.
But their joint venture Debswana reported sales for the first three quarters of 2024 were down by 52 per cent.
In December, Gaolathe warned that Botswana’s economy could contract by 1.7 per cent during 2024 as a direct result of the diamond. Slump.
But he predicted better times ahead, with an expected rebound in the diamond market driving overall growth in 2025.
Video grab shows finance minister Ndaba Gaolathe delivering his 2025/26 budget.
De Beers, long associated with the glamour of natural diamonds, is now grappling with a fading shine. The rise of lab-grown diamonds, which have gained popularity among millennial and Gen Z consumers in India and worldwide from the US to China poses a significant challenge.
Lab-grown diamonds offer several advantages: they are 60-75% more affordable than natural diamonds, and as mass production increases, prices continue to drop. Moreover, they share the same chemical composition as natural diamonds and are visually indistinguishable to the naked eye.
