A stunning 10.33-carat Burmese ruby fetched an impressive $5.5 million at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction in New York, following a heated six-minute bidding battle between two phone bidders and one participant in the saleroom. The final sale price more than doubled its high estimate.
This cushion-shaped, untreated ruby, set in a ring alongside two pear-shaped diamonds, emerged as the highlight of the 96 lot auction, which achieved a total of $30 million. Notably, 92% of the lots were sold, with 70% exceeding their high estimates.
The auction underscored a strong appetite for rare colored gemstones, exceptional white and colored diamonds, and signed pieces from renowned names like Graff, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Boivin.
A 19.22 carat diamond, recovered from a shallow mine by a part-time digger in India’s Panna district, sold at auction for $111,000 (Rs 93,79,360).
It was one of 29 diamonds sold by the Panna Diamond Office, as part of a deal in which farmers and laborers rent small patches of land from the government. The other 28 stones raised just over $28,000 between them.
Many of the stones recovered have failed to find buyers at the three-monthly auctions over the last two years, but demand picked up at this latest event, with large crowds of bidders in attendance.
Panna is said to be home to 1.2m carats. Part-time miners pay $2.70 for the rights to dig a 25ft square patch there and diamond finds are quite common.
In February 2022 a part-time prospector dug up a 26.11-carat diamond which later sold for at auction for $193,000.
Maruti Impex, described as one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of small natural diamonds, is halting operations, and has advised its 15,000 workers to seek employment elsewhere.
The company’s founder, Suresh Lakhani, aged 45, suffered a stroke three months ago and remains in a coma.
He’s been the driving force behind the business, which he launched in 1995 when he was just 16 years old. He is said to be the sole decision maker.
The future of Maruti Impex, which operates over 100 units, directly and indirectly, in Surat, Bhavnagar, Amreli, and Junagadh, is now uncertain.
Staff were informed of the closure by audio message, just as diamond units re-open after the Diwali break.
They received salaries up to the holiday, but have been told it’s not clear when operations could resume. The company made mention of “three or four months”.
Family members stepped in short term following Lakhani’s stroke, but have reportedly decided to pause operations because of weak market conditions.
Times of India quotes Dinesh Navadiya, chairman of the Indian Diamond Institute, as saying: “Without his (Lakhani’s) leadership and given the current challenging market conditions, the management is unable to continue operations.”
Lakhani describes himself on LinkedIn as a “self-made entrepreneur and philanthropist who has built a successful global business – “Maruti Impex” from scratch. Maruti Impex is one of the largest companies in the world in cut and polished diamonds.”
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.
Luk Fook reported a 27 per cent slump in its half-year revenue and the closure of 175 of its 3,500-plus retail jewelry stores amid a surge in gold prices and weak consumer demand.
Earnings for the six months to 30 September were down to $700m. The Hong Kong-based jewelry chain blamed: “various challenges including macroeconomic uncertainties, further rising gold prices and cautious consumer sentiment, coupled with a high base effect”.
Luk Fook said the sharp rise in gold prices – an increase of 23 per cent during the six months – affected consumer sentiment, resulting in a 24 per cent drop in the sales of gold and platinum products. Overall same stores sales were down 34 per cent.
CEO Wong Wai Sheung said: “Although the spike in gold prices may affect sales performance, an increase in profit margin will help mitigate the impact of the decline in sales.
“Sales of the gold products are expected to resume to the normal levels after consumers adapt to the high gold prices.
Gross profits for the six months were down 14 per cent to $228m, net profit fell 56 per cent to $54m.
In March, Luk Fook reported a 28 per cent increase in revenue, driven by a post-Covid influx of tourists.
Angola has announced that Russian shares in two of its major diamond mines have been sold to an Omani-backed fund as a result of international sanctions, a government official said.
Russia’s diamond giant Alrosa was until now a joint owner of Angola’s Catcoa mine, the fourth-largest in the world, and Luele mine, in partnership with the southern African nation’s state-owned company Endiama.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Alrosa, also state-owned, and its CEO in January as part of a ban on diamond imports over the Ukraine war.
This led to “a block on the commercialization” of diamonds from Catcoa and Luele mines, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum Diamantino Azevedo said Thursday.
After “negotiations between the Angolan and Russian governments, as well as between Endiama and its partner,” Alrosa has now “officially ceased operating in Angola,” Azevedo said.
The company has been “replaced by Maden International Group, a subsidiary of the Sovereign Fund of the Sultanate of Oman,” the minister added.
He said the transition process was “already underway and should be conducted swiftly.”
The sale comes as the United States President Joe Biden was expected to travel to Angola on Dec. 2.
The visit, his first to Africa, underscores the strategic importance of the oil and mineral-rich country where a massive U.S.-led project is underway to export critical minerals.
De Beers says it will further reduce the number of sightholders, in a move designed to build partnerships that “create value”.
The emphasis will be on quality rather than quantity, CEO Al Cook told the Facets 2024 conference in Antwerp yesterday (26 November).
De Beers wrote to its 69 current sightholders last month advising them that a new supply agreement, as of January 2026, would be determined by an objective selection and allocation process. It declined to comment at the time.
“There will be some partnerships around the polished side, some partnerships around the rough side, some partnerships around dealing, some partnerships that go all the way into retail, but every partnership must create value, and that’s really important for all of our industry going forward,” Cook told the conference.
De Beers last reduced the number of sightholders in January 2021, when it introduced new contracts dividing buyers into three categories – dealers, manufacturers and integrated retailers.
The number of De Beers sightholders peaked at around 350 in the 1970s. It had halved by 2001 and was further reduced in subsequent changes to the client structure.
Lucapa Diamond has announced plans to restart production at its mothballed Merlin diamond mine in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The phased approach will begin with an 18-month initial phase, requiring A$15 million ($10m) to excavate and dredge five existing pits. This work is expected to recover around 67,000 carats and generate an estimated A$42 ($27m) million in revenue.
The second phase, spanning 27 months, will focus on vertical pit mining at the Gawain pit, targeting the recovery of 247,000 carats and generating A$246 million ($160m) in revenue. The overall project is expected to yield operating cash flow of $110 million, with a pre-tax net present value of A$40 million ($26m)and an internal rate of return of 75%.
Lucapa anticipates recovering gem and near-gem quality diamonds, which historically accounted for 75% of the mine’s production.
Questions remain about how Lucapa will fund its plans, as the company began the quarter with just US$1.3 million in cash. To address this, Lucapa has entered into a A$1 million short-term loan and is also exploring other funding options such offtake agreements, project-level debt, equity, and government facilities.
Smaller, more achievable target Lucapa, which also has interests in the Lulo diamond operations in Angola and the Mothae mine in Lesotho, acquired Merlin in 2021 for A$8.5 million.
The restart plan follows a 2022 scoping study that proposed a larger $96 million restart, which was halted due to rising capital costs and declining diamond prices.
The new plan includes constructing a 355,000tpa process plant using existing equipment at Merlin, with a proposed five-year mine life aimed at expanding operations into the 2030s.
Lucapa aims to grow the diamond resource beyond the current estimate of 4.4 million carats while also exploring the region for base metals, given its proximity to the McArthur River lead-zinc-silver mine.
Key players have taken “a very important step in the right direction” to raising $100m for the long-term promotion of natural diamonds, according to Yoram Dvash, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB).
He also said he was cautiously optimistic for the holiday season as prices had started to stabilize globally, inventories were reducing and De Beers and the World Diamond Council (WDC) had embarked on multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns.
Dvash (pictured) said trade bodies had reacted very positively o his call for a $100m marketing campaign after what he described as a “brainstorming session” at the Dubai Diamond Conference earlier this month.
The Antwerp World Diamond Council (AWDC) and India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), had agreed to start looking into funding campaigns by the Natural Diamond Council, he said, in collaboration with the WFDB, IDMA (International Diamond Manufacturers Association) and CIBJO (World Jewellery Confederation). More trade bodies are expected to follow suit.
Dvash said he’d called for the industry to unite behind a major and sustained marketing campaign over the next five years to create demand for natural diamonds some weeks ago, and had been pleased by their response.
“It seems that we have found the golden formula that would enable the industry to raise $100m for generic advertising of natural diamonds,” he said.
Earlier this month he said there hadn’t been a major generic marketing campaign for natural diamonds for almost 20 years, when De Beers halted its “A Diamond is Forever” promotion.
“An entire generation of consumers has come of age without having been exposed to promotional campaigns with positive messages about natural diamonds,” he said in a letter to all the WFDB’s 29 member bourses.
Russia will continue to buy diamonds through a state fund in 2025 in order to support the diamond industry and market, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said on Thursday.
The Russian budget for 2025-2027 has set aside $1.55 billion for the purchase of precious metals and gems, Moiseev said in a statement.
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Russia will continue to ensure “stable global rough diamond prices in the wake of oversupply in the current market,” the same statement said.
State-owned precious metals and gems repository Gokhran resumed buying diamonds from Alrosa in March 2024. Alrosa, under US and EU sanctions, is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume with 30% of the market.
