A diamond held by dop is polished on rotating automatic cast iron lap
Prices showed signs of stabilizing during April, with an even mix of increases and decreases in many sizes, especially fancy cuts. Overall there were more clusters of price rises than we have seen of late.
It’s too early to positively identify a clear upward trend, but the “end of the lab grown boom” is arguably having an impact. Lab grown prices are now so low – in some case just 10 percent of natural – that many jewelers are opting not to stock them in inventory and are only buying them on consignment.
In addition the G7 sanctions, in place since 1 March, are now starting to bite, and to slowly push up prices.
They have effectively restored the De Beers monopoly, although its rough production is down by almost a quarter so far this year (as is Rio Tinto’s) and rough sales remain sluggish (down 18 per cent on last year). Meanwhile polished exports from India fell by 27 per cent during March to $1.2bn
The 118.74 carats diamond recovered in late April.
Africa-focused miner Gem Diamonds (LON: GEMD) has unearthed a new major Type II white diamond at its prolific Letšeng mine in Lesotho, barely six days after the previous find.
The 118.74-carat diamond is the fifth greater than 100-carat precious stone recovered this year at the operation, the company said.
Type IIa diamonds are the most valued and collectable precious gemstones, as they contain either very little or no nitrogen atoms in their crystal structure. Boart diamonds are stones of low quality that are used in powder form as an abrasive.
The prolific Letšeng mine is one of the world’s ten largest diamond operations by revenue. At 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, it is also one of the world’s most elevated diamond mines.
Diamond miners are going through a rough patch as US and Chinese demand for diamond jewellery continues to be weak and the popularity of cheaper laboratory grown diamonds continues to rise.
In 2015, man-made diamonds had barely made an appearance as a competitor to natural diamonds. By last year, these stones accounted for more than 10% of the global diamond jewelry market, according to industry specialist Paul Zimnisky.
The market values of small to medium diamond mining companies, including Canada’s Lucara (TSX: LUC), South Africa’s Petra (LON: PDL), and Gem Diamonds itself, are around $100 million or less. This is only about a third or a fourth of the price the large stones they aim to find may be worth.
Minespider, a leading traceability platform for tracking minerals and raw materials, and Star Diamond Corp., a Canadian corporation engaged in the exploration, acquisition, and development of mineral properties, have partnered to launch the Diamond Passport and comply with the new G7 rules.
G7 countries have put a direct ban on Russian diamonds and agreed to establish a verification and certification mechanism for rough diamonds to prove their origin, ensuring diamonds are not mined, processed, or produced in conflict zones.
Having over 6 years of traceability experience with companies like Google, Minsur, LuNa Smelter, and others, Minespider introduced its own Diamond Passport in March this year. The Diamond Passport contains all key information about the diamond, including its provenance data, the diamond’s unique DNA, such as size, shape, color, carat, clarity, cut, and specific inclusions (natural flaws or imperfections), certificates from gemological laboratories and other documentation about the diamond.
“Through our partnership with Star Diamond, we intend to significantly strengthen the company’s position in diamond mining at large-scale mining spots in Canada. The diamond industry requires a new reliable mechanism for the verification and certification of rough diamonds based on traceability, and we are proud to support this significant change with our robust technology and extensive experience in mineral traceability.” said Nathan Williams, CEO and Founder, Minespider.
Star Diamond Corporation is striving to ensure that diamond mining in Saskatchewan is conducted responsibly, with a focus on improving environmental performance and accompanied by strong social performance.
“Star Diamond is excited to partner with the team at Minespider as we prepare for the eventual production and retailing of our world-class conflict-free Saskatchewan diamonds. It is our aim to provide wholesalers/retailers and end purchasers with a complete provenance report on all of our gem-quality diamonds. This will ensure that end purchasers may rest assured that the diamond they purchase for their loved one is conflict-free and ethically produced in Canada.” added Ewan Mason, President and CEO, Star Diamond Corporation.
De Beers is moving its auctions headquarters from Singapore to Botswana in a move designed to streamline its operations and cut costs.
The UK-based miner sells around 10 per cent of its rough, by value, via online auctions to almost 1,000 registered buyers. The other 90 per cent is sold to sightholders.
In a statement the company said De Beers Group Auctions would pause it operations and sales events in the coming months, while the transition takes place.
Last year De Beers postponed its Cycle 5 and 6 auctions amid dwindling demand from Indian manufacturers and in January it introduced a new online “sealed bid” tender called The Offer for some of its rough diamonds.
Al Cook, De Beers Group CEO, said the move would drive cost efficiencies and support the needs of customers.
Last December Anglo American, parent company of De Beers said the diamond miner would have to cut $100m from its annual overheads in the face of ongoing weak demand.
De Beers moved its Sights from the UK to Gaborone, Botswana, in 2013.
BHP’s share-swap take over bid for arch-rival Anglo American to create a $185 billion mining giant will struggle to succeed, but if it does there is one arm of the target certain to be sold, the De Beers diamond business.
Despite its century-old reputation and claim to be the custodian of the diamond industry De Beers has become more trouble than it’s worth, under attack from two directions. Demand for diamonds is being battered by global economic uncertainty while the problem of slowing sales is being supercharged by the increasing popularity of lab-grown gems which are indistinguishable from mined diamonds.
A third factor which could seal the fate of De Beers is that BHP quit the diamond industry a decade ago after struggling to mix mining, and its basic function of heavy-duty earthmoving, with the fine art of producing and marketing baubles for the rich and newlyweds.
It could get worse for the diamond mining business because prices for lab-grown gems are continuing to fall as a market split widens. High-value jewels remain of interest to a handful of wealthy people, while the lion’s share of the market shifts to lab-grown.
De Beers, which was a pioneer in the business of lab-grown gems via its Lightbox subsidiary, has consistently played down the threat to its traditional mined-diamond business but sustaining that argument became a little harder on Tuesday when it reported a big production fall in the March quarter.
The 23% drop in output caused Anglo American to lower its full year diamond production target from between 29 million and 32 million carats to between 26-and-29 million carats.
Management blamed the decline on the effect of a build-up of inventory of unsold stones with lab-grown gems cannibalising demand for mined stones.
Forbes Daily: Join over 1 million Forbes Daily subscribers and get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.It Could Get A Lot Worse It could get a lot worse if a recent study of the diamond market by a specialist London jewelry firm is a guide.
The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard According to Hatton Jewels, which specialises in handling antique second-hand gems and does not sell lab-grown gems, some lab-grown diamonds are spectacular overpriced with retailers inflating their prices by as much as 1200%.
Rachel Smith, head valuer at Hatton said that in the current landscape, every business pays a similar wholesale price for lab-grown diamonds, regardless of disparities in their retail market value.
“The wholesale price of lab-grown diamonds can plummet to as low as 1% of their natural counterparts’ value,” Smith said in an emailed statement.
Smith cited three retail prices for a two-carat F VS1 (high quality) lab-grown diamond being offered for sale at $11,375, $2730 and $866. A gem of that size and quality costs between $500 and $759 to make.
“While some companies uphold integrity by selling lab-grown diamonds at fair market value, ensuring equitable competition, others exploit the situation for profit.
Diamond “growing” machines in India. “Some retailers inflate prices by as much as 1200%, potentially driven by a desire to maintain the narrative that they are not different from natural diamonds, otherwise they may be considered too cheap and therefore undesirable, or to capitalize on trends at the expense of consumers.”
If Smith is right and lab-grown diamonds are currently being sold at inflated profit margins, the ease with which they are produced will ensure an increase in supply, resulting eventually in a price crash.
When that happens the value of the once-great De Beers business will fade, and the appeal to a mining company like BHP will disappear — if it succeeds in acquiring Anglo American.
Diamond output for De Beers slumped 23 per cent in the first quarter, as production was cut in response to a slow recovery in demand amid a pullback in luxury spending and the proliferation of lab-grown equivalents.
De Beers was the only unit of Anglo American to adjust its full-year production forecast on Tuesday, reducing its guided range to 26mn to 29mn carats of output, from 29mn to 32mn, and lifting expected average costs to $90 per carat, from $80.
Anglo American said the diamond market was suffering from a price rout caused by excess piles of inventory, something that De Beers has previously acknowledged is partly down to lab-grown diamonds cannibalising demand for mined stones.
“Ongoing uncertainty around economic growth prospects has led to a continued cautious purchasing approach” by its customers, Anglo American said. “The recovery in rough diamond demand is expected to be gradual through the rest of the year,” it added.
De Beers said a nascent recovery had begun in the first quarter, buoyed by improved demand for diamond jewellery around Christmas and new year in the US.
Diamond producers including De Beers’ arch-rival, Russia’s Alrosa, tried to curb the flow of gemstones into the market in the second half of last year. The Indian government even put on a voluntary import moratorium on rough stones in the final quarter to protect its polishers and cutters.
Despite those continued efforts into this year, demand, prices and the market recovery remains sluggish, Anglo said, requiring further action to be taken to reduce supply.
Anglo American chief executive Duncan Wanblad has been under pressure to improve performance since a production downgrade in December sent shares tumbling, although it has been aided by higher commodity prices, especially for copper.
Wanblad has said that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to asset sales or other options to restructure units, of which De Beers and the platinum group metals division are the most troubled.
“We are progressing through our asset review to optimise value by simplifying and improving the overall quality of the portfolio,” he said in a statement in the first-quarter production update on Tuesday.
Shares in Anglo American dropped 1.7 per cent in early trading in London and remain about a third lower than they were at the start of 2023.
Besides diamonds, the London-based company managed to maintain its guidance across its other commodities such as copper, iron ore and steelmaking coal.
Copper output jumped 11 per cent to 198,100 tonnes, helped by record throughput at its Quellaveco mine in Peru and higher grades at its Chilean mines Collahuasi and El Soldado.
South Africa, where Anglo American has iron ore, steelmaking coal and platinum mines, has become an increasing drag on production because of crippling problems in the logistics and power sector. Rail constraints resulted in a 2 per cent drop in output at Kumba Iron Ore.
It’s 50 years since the world’s largest octahedral diamond was recovered, and even today it remains uncut, unpolished and unsold.
The 616-carat Type 1 yellow diamond, dates back to 17 April 1974 and comes from the Dutoitspan Mine in Kimberley, South Africa, which opened in the 1870s and closed in 2005.
The miner who found the diamond, De Beers employee Abel Maretela, was rewarded with a large bonus and a house.
Al Cook, De Beers Group CEO, was shown the diamond on a visit to Johannesburg, by Moses Madondo, CEO of De Beers Group managed operations.
“I’m a geologist so I love to learn about the history of diamonds even before they were found,” he said in a LinkedIn post.
“This is a Type 1 diamond which means that it was formed around 150 km below the earth’s surface, deep in the mantle, over 1 billion years ago.
“During the Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago, a kimberlite volcano brought this diamond up to the earth’s surface. Its beautiful yellow colour comes from nitrogen atoms that were trapped inside the carbon lattice when it was forming in the mantle.”
Petra Diamonds sold fewer carats but achieved higher prices earlier this month at its fifth tender of FY 2024, boosted by the sale of an $8.2m blue diamond.
The UK-based miner achieved an average $136 per carat on sales of 362,000 carats for $49m.
Like-for-like figures for its fourth tender, in February, were $112 per carat on sales of 429,000 carats for $48m.
Sales for the year to date are, however, lagging behind FY 2023, at $285m, down 10 per cent down on $316m.
The 14.76ct exceptional color and clarity blue diamond recovered from Cullinan, South Africa, sold for $8.2m, although it was not classified as an “exceptional stone” (over $15m).
Total revenue for Q3 FY 2024 was $66m, down 27 per cent on the previous quarter, due to the lower production and the timing of receipts from the fifth tender.
“Production for the quarter is consistent with the preceding quarter and in-line with expectations.,” said CEO Richard Duffy.
Production guidance for FY 2024 is 2.75m to 2.85m carats.
Earlier this month Petra announced the sale of its loss-making Koffiefontein mine, in South Africa, to Dubai-based Stargems for a nominal sum.
Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) chief executive Ari Epstein resigned unexpectedly on Thursday, the AWDC’s board of directors said in a statement.
A spokesperson for AWDC, Belgium’s main diamond industry group, said on Friday that Epstein, who had been CEO for 13 years, did not wish to communicate about the reason for his sudden departure, but Belgian financial newspaper De Tijd reported that Russian diamond sanctions had been the cause of conflict between the diamond sector and the Belgian government.
AWDC did not say who would replace Epstein as CEO. Epstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn.
Following an EU ban on Russian-origin diamonds that took effect on March 1, rough and polished diamonds have to enter the EU and G7 countries with documentary proof and declarations that the stones are not of Russian origin.
Antwerp’s diamond dealers have said they are facing long and costly delays as a consequence.
