Diamonds – Page 31 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Dubai-Israel Diamond Trade Hits $1.75bn in 2022

The volume of trade exchange between UAE and Israel, in the diamond trade, increased to $1.75 billion in 2022, an annual increase of 163%, according to the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC), a leading global free zone and government body concerned with the trade of goods and projects.

The ties between the diamond industries of both countries developed rapidly after ‘Abraham Accords’. On September 17, 2020, just two days after the signing of ‘Abraham Accords’ in Washington and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and UAE, Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) and Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) signed a cooperation agreement.

In 2022, the Israel Diamond Exchange opened an office in Dubai, and the Dubai Diamond Exchange opened in Ramat Gan, Israel’s diamond capital.

In May 2020, Israel and UAE signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, eliminating tariffs on diamonds and precious stones.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman and CEO of DMCC, said: “Over the past two years we have witnessed strong growth in Israeli companies setting up in our free zone, as they take full advantage of growing their businesses globally and the vertical integration we bring to the category.”

“As the trade relationship grows and matures between Israel and the UAE, we look forward to welcoming more business from Israel in diamonds as well as other key sectors,” he added.

The UAE has witnessed soaring growth in the sector over the past three years, with the rough diamond trade rising by 72% and polished by 50%. Bin Sulayem noted this success, adding that Israel has played a significant part in its accomplishment.

“Dubai, via our Dubai Diamond Exchange, has become the global leader in the diamond trade. This is reflected in the diamond trade numbers with Israel, with $ 1.75 billion traded last year,” he said.

Dubai provides Tel Aviv with greater opportunities for trading in the global market due to its position as a prominent regional trading center, and its proximity to Asian centers for the production of precious stones, in addition to the preference given to Israeli occupation companies to trade without additional costs or taxes, as stipulated in the free trade agreement between UAE and Israel.

The DDE, which was established in 2002 under the umbrella of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), has over 1,100 licensed companies. It now handles some $25bn in total trade, double that of Israel’s IDE.

Contributed by Nada Mustafa

De Beers Sales Slide as Slow Trading Continues

De Beers’ sales value fell this month as global rough demand weakened and the miner reduced prices of its larger stones.

Proceeds dropped 32% year on year to $450 million at 2023’s fifth sales cycle from $657 million in the equivalent period a year earlier, De Beers reported Wednesday. Sales declined 6% compared with the $479 million that the fourth cycle brought in. The total included the June sight as well as auction sales.

“Following the JCK [Las Vegas] show, and with ongoing global macroeconomic challenges continuing to impact end-client sentiment, the diamond industry remains cautious heading into summer,” said De Beers CEO Al Cook. “Reflecting this, we saw demand for De Beers rough diamonds during the fifth sales cycle of the year slightly softer than in the fourth cycle.”

De Beers lowered prices at the sight by 5% to 10% mainly in 2-carat categories and larger, as well as for some 1- to 1.5-carat items, market insiders said. It also extended its buyback program, which allows sightholders to sell goods back to the miner following the purchase.

This reflected weakness in the rough that produces polished above 0.30 carats, and especially the stones that yield 1-carat finished diamonds. These sizes are especially weak in the US market amid economic uncertainty and a lull in engagements, dealers explained. Rough under 0.75 carats has seen a mild recovery as Indian manufacturers look to fill their factories with low-cost material.

Source: rapaport.com

The Industry’s Diamond-Origin Conundrum

The Group of Seven (G7) meeting that took place in Japan in mid-May proved to be an anticlimax for the diamond trade.

The industry had expected a major announcement to come from the meeting relating to required declarations on the origin of diamonds imported to those countries — an additional measure that would help prevent polished diamonds sourced from Russian-origin rough entering their markets.

While a clear guideline did not emerge, the member nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — pledged to work toward such measures.

“In order to reduce the revenues that Russia extracts from the export of diamonds, we will continue to restrict the trade in and use of diamonds mined, processed or produced in Russia,” the group said after the meeting.

As it stands, the US and the UK have implemented bans on diamonds sourced directly from Russia. However, the sanctions don’t account for “substantial transformation,” and consequently the manufacturing center is regarded as the source. For example, diamonds polished in Belgium, India, Israel or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Russian rough can technically be imported to the US.

Implementing such detailed declarations is proving more complicated than originally thought. Creating such mechanisms will take time, as Feriel Zerouki, the De Beers executive who heads the World Diamond Council (WDC), said in a recent panel discussion at the JCK Las Vegas show in early June. These measures would apply to the entire industry, seemingly requiring a disclosure of origin for all diamonds at customs.

“How do we support the [sanctions] without paralyzing the industry and making it very cumbersome for natural diamonds to enter the G7 countries,” Zerouki challenged the Las Vegas audience.

Setting standards
It’s a sensitive point for an already heavily audited industry, and for companies in each segment of the supply chain that would bear the added expense of verifying such information.

It’s also worth noting that the G7 cannot enact such requirements as a bloc. It will be left to each country to implement its own import rules. That said, there does at least seem to be an effort among those countries to apply some consistency in their systems. It was an open secret that members of various governments and industry bodies met in Las Vegas during the show to advance these discussions, which presumably covered a wide spectrum of industry-related issues.

Central to the talks must surely be the practicality of such declarations. What mechanisms are available to the industry that would facilitate traceability? And who verifies that these initiatives meet the required standards? And on what are those standards based?

The trade has at its disposal industry structures as well as company programs that tackle the challenge of traceability and source verification — although arguably nothing is foolproof.

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Surat Dealers “Smuggling Diamonds from Sierra Leone”

Diamond dealers from Surat are routinely flying to Sierra Leone, buying uncertified rough diamonds from artisanal mines and smuggling them home, according to an investigation by The Blunt Times.

Many of the stones are reportedly stolen by workers and sold for dollars at “throwaway” prices.

One diamond dealer, who said he was a frequent visitor, told the Surat-based news website: “We have a network of artisanal workers in Sierra Leone from whom we purchase diamonds.

“They (artisanal workers) steal the diamonds from mines and they have to sell it within a day or two. Since we pay them in dollars, it is a quite a big deal for the poor workers.”

Another dealer told how he hired a team of four or five security guards on his diamond-buying trips.

None of the diamonds has a Kimberley Process (KP) certificate.

According to the latest figures from KP’s Certification Scheme, Sierra Leone exported 641,469 carats in 2020, with a value of $119m.

Source: IDEX

IGI Sees Largest a Lab-Grown Diamond

India-based Ethereal Green Diamond has created and sold the largest polished lab-grown diamond in history, according to the International Gemological Institute (IGI), which graded it.

Named Shiphra, the emerald-cut, 50.25-carat, type IIa stone has G color, VS2 clarity, and an “excellent” score for cut, polish and symmetry, IGI said Thursday. It measures 22.95 x 18.45 x 11.57 millimeters. It’s the world’s first polished lab-grown diamond above 50 carats, IGI claimed.

Ethereal grew the 150-carat rough using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method over a period of eight months. It cut the stone in Surat, India, and will display the polished at its JCK Las Vegas booth. Swiss brand Shiphra Jewelry has bought it and lent its name to the piece.

“This gemstone is a paradigm-shifting breakthrough, surpassing 50 carats while exemplifying preeminent standards of sophistication and quality,” said Tehmasp Printer, president and managing director of IGI India.

The record comes shortly after IGI graded its largest lab-grown diamond to date: A 35-carat CVD stone that Maitri Lab Grown Diamonds produced. Last month, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) said it had examined a 34.59-carat diamond that Ethereal synthesized using the same method.

Source: rapaport.com

Anglo American reports latest diamond sales value for De Beers

Anglo American plc announces the value of rough diamond sales (Global Sightholder Sales and Auctions) for De Beers’ fourth sales cycle of 2023, amounting to US$480 million.

The provisional rough diamond sales figure quoted for Cycle 4 represents the expected sales value for the period 1 and 16 May and remains subject to adjustment based on final completed sales.

Al Cook, CEO of De Beers, said:

“Sales of our rough diamonds in the fourth sales cycle of the year saw a small decrease from the previous cycle as the industry has entered what is traditionally a seasonally quieter period. Rough diamond demand was also influenced by ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and a slower pace of recovery in consumer demand from China than was widely anticipated.”

Source: globalminingreview

4.83 ct Fancy Blue Diamond Sells for $8.8 million USD

A 4.83 carat fancy vivid blue diamond ring sold for $8.8m at Christie’s Hong Kong as the Magnificent Jewels sale brought in a total of almost $60m.

The brilliant cut IF Type IIb gem (pictured) was surrounded by fancy-cut diamonds, in a gold setting. It sold between the low and high estimates of $7m to $10.2m.

The blue diamond led the sale, followed by two items which both sold for above their high estimates.

An octagonal step-cut 21.38 carat sapphire in a platinum ring set with tapered baguette cut diamonds sold for $4.5m (high estimate $2.3m).

And an 8.92 carats fancy vivid yellow orange pear modified brilliant cut diamond, in a platinum and gold ring, with pear brilliant-cut diamonds of 1.12 and 1.11 carat, sold for $4m (high estimate $3.8m).

Source: IDEX

Renowned Diamond Cutter Gabriel ‘Gabi’ Tolkowsky Dies

Sir Gabriel “Gabi” Tolkowsky, one of the world’s most revered diamond cutters, has died at 84, friends and family wrote on social media on Monday.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1939, Tolkowsky was from a family steeped in the diamond industry. He learned the trade from father, Jean, who had a diamond-polishing factory in Israel — an education that would set him up for a career manufacturing some of the world’s most famous diamonds.

“Every day after work, [my father] would come home from his workshop with people from all over the world who had come to learn about diamond polishing and sit in the one big living-cum-bedroom-cum-dining room we had,” Tolkowsky said in a 2008 interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times.

Jean Tolkowsky and his cousin had moved from Antwerp to Palestine — now Israel — in 1932, Gabriel Tolkowsky told Martin Rapaport in 2000. Jean became the first person to install a polishing operation in the country.

“To polish diamonds, he had to use a bicycle to turn the polishing wheel, because there was no electricity,” he said. “Many of the first diamond people in Israel were my father’s pupils. I learned my trade from him, and I am proud to have had such a rare opportunity.”

From 1975 until 1995, Gabriel Tolkowsky worked for De Beers’ now-defunct manufacturing unit, Diatrada. He was famous for cutting the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamond, which De Beers unveiled in 1991 to mark 100 years since the company was founded.

For months, he “just studied it,” Tolkowsky said in the 2000 interview. “I looked at it during the day; I looked at it at night. I looked at it during the day, and at night it looked at me! I couldn’t sleep, because I was looking for answers.”

After De Beers announced he would polish the stone, he and his wife had to hide from news reporters and ended up staying in an unlisted room in the basement of a remote hotel in Cape Town, according to The Straits Times. He subsequently spent three years cutting the diamond in a high-security underground facility. The polished piece later went on display at the Tower of London. He also cut the 545.67-carat Golden Jubilee Diamond for De Beers.

The Centenary Diamond. (De Beers)
“He always believed that diamonds are not a commodity but rather a unique way of expressing emotions,” said Marc-André Zucker, a board member at Antwerp’s rough-diamond bourse, the Antwerpsche Diamantkring. “His enthusiasm was endless — he was truly ‘romancing’ diamonds.”

Part of a well-known diamond family, he was the great-nephew of Marcel Tolkowsky, the inventor of the ideal-cut round brilliant diamond.

In 2002, he received a Knighthood Chevalier de L’ Ordre du Roi Leopold II from the Belgian government for his contribution to the diamond industry.

He was a “pioneer and a master craftsman who understood the wonder of diamonds like few other people,” said a spokesperson for De Beers. “Gabi combined artistry, expertise and passion to create some of the most beautiful and famous polished diamonds in history. He will be greatly missed, and all our thoughts are with the Tolkowsky family.”

Source: rapaport.com

Botswana president insists on bigger share of diamonds from De Beers venture

Botswana will not back down on demands for a bigger share of rough diamonds from its joint venture with De Beers, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said on Thursday, upping the stakes as talks for a new sales deal appear to be stalling.

Botswana and De Beers mine the precious stones through their equally owned, 54-year-old mining venture, Debswana Diamond Co. The current diamond sales deal, in place since 2011, has been extended three times since 2020 but is set to expire next month.

De Beers, a unit of Anglo American Plc, gets 75% of Debswana’s production, which was 24 million carats in 2022. The balance is sold to state-owned Okavango Diamond Company, a vehicle established in 2011 as Botswana began moves to independently sell some gems outside of the De Beers system.

Masisi, who has been Botswana’s president since 2018 and will seek re-election in next year’s elections, now wants Botswana to sell more of its diamonds outside the De Beers channel.

“Our agreement with De Beers is very restrictive to us. We signed it at a time when we didn’t know much, but now our eyes are open,” Masisi said at a community meeting in Mmadinare, 400 kilometres (248.55 miles) north-east of the capital, Gaborone.

Masisi hinted at a possible stalemate and litigation over the sales agreement.

“Even if we lose the litigation, our diamonds will remain ours and we will never give in. If I am going to lose votes because of this issue, then so be it,” said Masisi, speaking in Setswana.

Masisi has previously threatened to walk away from the talks if Botswana does not get a bigger share of Debswana’s output for marketing outside the De Beers system. The government has not publicly stated what share it seeks, but it is believed to be as high as 50%, double the current allocation.

De Beers was not immediately available to comment.

The diamond giant says Botswana receives more than 80% of returns from Debswana, after taxes and royalties are factored in. De Beers has previously expressed confidence that its five-decade partnership with Botswana will continue, on terms “that make economic and strategic sense for both parties.”

Source: yahoo.com

Fresh sanctions on Russian diamonds put 1 million jobs at risk

G7 countries are imposing fresh sanctions against Russia to try to further hinder its war effort in Ukraine. “If the sanctions continue, then there will be a lot of uncertainty in the employment of one million workers,” said Vipul Shah, chairman of Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).