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Gem Diamonds Limited has announced the discovery of an exceptional 183-carat white Type IIa diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho on February 3.
The miner also announced that it also recovered two different high quality diamonds, one of 89 carats and the other of 70 carats, from the mine.
The Letseng mine is the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Zimbabwe plans to reduce the percentage of sales diamond miners must pay to the state, aiming to encourage companies to invest in the Marange fields.
The government proposed a new royalty rate of 10% in the annual budget last week. Diamond producers currently pay 15% of gross revenues, but their overall costs have escalated as they shift toward hard-rock — or “conglomerate” — mining, which is lucrative but expensive.
The change could benefit companies such as Russia’s Alrosa, which is exploring for rough in the country, as well as Botswana Diamonds and Vast Resources, which operate a joint venture at the Marange fields.
“The royalty rate of 15% on diamonds was set during the period when mining was predominantly alluvial, and extraction cost was relatively low,” Mthuli Ncube, minister of finance and economic development, explained in his budget statement. “However, diamond miners are [now] exploiting conglomerate deposits, hence the cost of extraction has significantly increased.”
Last year, the state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company installed a crushing plant at Marange to help it process the harder rock. The nation plans to increase its annual production to 11 million carats by 2023, from 3.2 million carats in 2018, Reuters reported last month.
The state intends to introduce the lower royalty rate on January 1 with the goal of attracting investment in exploration and extraction. The country has also made progress in its plans to repeal an “indigenization” law limiting foreign ownership of diamond and platinum mines, Ncube continued.
Source: Diamonds.net
Weak rough-diamond demand led to a decline in profit at Alrosa in the third quarter, the Russian miner reported.
Profit slid 44% to RUB 13.5 billion ($211.6 million) for the three months ending September 30, as revenue faltered and the company’s margin fell, it said last week.
Sales decreased 37% to $611 million, as proceeds from both rough and polished diamonds declined. Rough sales slipped 37% to $601 million, while the average price for gem-quality diamonds slid 32% to $135 per carat, reflecting sales of a higher proportion of small-sized diamonds. Sales volume dropped 5% to 6.4 million carats.
“The diamond-jewelry demand was affected by increased macroeconomic uncertainty that put a damper on consumer confidence,” the company noted. “Amid the declining demand since the beginning of 2019, diamond-jewelry manufacturers and cutters have been actively reducing their stocks of end products and rough diamonds.”
Rough output grew 14% year on year to 12.1 million carats for the quarter, stemming from the launch of production at the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit, as well as higher production from the Botuobinskaya pipe.
In the first nine months of the year, the miner produced 29.7 million carats, up 12% year on year. Rough sales for the January-to-September period fell 34% to $2.39 billion.
Alrosa’s sales grew 9% year on year to 264.4 million in October, as prices and demand continued to stabilize, the miner noted. Rough-diamond sales increased 9% to $253.9 million for the month, while polished jumped 17% to $10.4 million.
However, despite the growth in October, weakness in the market affected the company’s ten-month total. In the first ten months of the year, sales fell 31% to $2.7 billion. Rough-diamond sales dropped 32% to $2.6 billion, with polished declining 43% to $47.2 million.
Source: Diamonds.net
The world’s top diamond producer by output, Alrosa , has unearthed a unique rough diamond weighing over 232 carats, the largest gem-quality specimen found in more than three years.
THE GEM nQUALITY OCTAHEDRON WAS FOUND AT THE UDACNHAYA KIMBERLITE, IN THE YAKUTIA REGION OF SIBERIA
The diamond, dug up at the Udacnhaya kimberlite pipe on October 19, is an octahedron of yellowish hue with several chips. Its dimensions are 40х39х23 mm.
“Such large gem-quality crystals are extremely rare,” deputy chief executive, Evgeny Agureev, said in the statement. “We have not seen them since 2016, when two diamonds weighing over 200 carats were mined.”
Discovered in 1955, the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe is one of the largest primary diamond deposits in the Yakutia region of Siberia and globally. Its diamond output reached 2.385 million carats in the first nine months of 2019.
Alrosa produced more than 43 million carats of diamonds in 2018 from its Russian mines, or about 27% of the world’s total. That’s 18% more than its closest competitor, Anglo American’s De Beers.
Alrosa finds diamond over 230 carats, largest in three years
Source: mining.com
Nemesis International on Thursday unveiled a 313 carat diamond that has been certified as the largest D colour polished stone in history.
The emerald shape, VVS1 clarity diamond, known as Constellation 1, is one of eight stones that make up a collection manufactured from the 813 carat Constellation rough, which Nemesis bought in partnership with Swiss jeweler de Grisogono for $63.1 million in 2016. At $77,613 per carat, the stone still ranks as the most expensive rough diamond ever sold.
Tom Moses, executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer at the Gemological Institute of America, confirmed with Rapaport News that the stone was the largest graded D colour diamond on record.
However, Nemesis has no immediate plans to sell the diamonds, CEO Konema Mwenenge told Rapaport News on the sidelines of the Dubai Diamond Conference. “We want to showcase this as the work of art that it is,” he stressed. “Diamonds are not just a commodity and this stone is impossible to value. We’re focused on building its legacy.”
The company is considering a roadshow to display the collection around the world at museums and other platforms. “We want to keep them as a family from the same rough,” Mwenenge added. The eight stones vary in size and shape, and range in clarity from flawless to internally flawless and VVS. The second largest stone in the family is a 102 carat diamond.
The diamonds will also be presented in their full polished form for now, but will eventually be mounted into jewelry. That contrasts with the company’s last major project, the Art of de Grisogono, an emerald cut, 163 carat, D flawless diamond, cut and polished in New York from a 404 carat rough diamond. That piece was sold as a necklace that could also transform into a bracelet, fetching $33.7 million at a Christie’s auction.
Source: Diamonds.net
Lucara Diamond has unearthed a 123-carat, gem-quality, top white Type II diamond at its Karowe mine, in Botswana, the same operation where it found the largest precious rock ever found in the African country.
The stone was recovered from direct milling ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe, the same area that yielded the famous “Lesedi La Rona.” The giant 1,109 carat diamond, however, was a hard sell for Lucara. Its buyer, Graff Diamonds ended up cutting it into smaller stones.
Karowe, which began commercial operations in 2012, has this year yielded 22 diamonds larger than 100 carats, eight of them exceeding 200 carats.
The mine also yielded the 1,758 carat Sewelô meaning “rare find” diamond, the largest ever recovered in Botswana.
The Vancouver-based company also announced it had recovered a 375 carat gem quality diamond during the processing of historic tailings from the mine. Reprocessing has so far yielded 29 diamonds over 100 carats, Lucara said.
Since the start of the year, the miner has sold 19 diamonds each with an individual price in excess of $1 million at its quarterly tender sales. This includes seven diamonds that fetched more than $2 million each, and one diamond that carried a final price tag of over $8 million.
“Lucara is pleased with the continued strong performance of the mine and the consistent recovery of large, high quality diamonds that contribute more than 70% of Lucara’s total revenues,” CEO Eira Thomas said in a statement.
The company, which has focused efforts on the prolific Botswana mine this year, is close to completing a feasibility study into potential underground production and life of mine expansion at Karowe.
Source: mining.com
A labourer in Bundelkhand region turned second time lucky when he got another diamond within a week in a piece of land he took on lease from the district administration in Panna district. The value of the diamond is estimated at about Rs 20 lakh, a mineral resources department official said.
The lessee, Kishor Kushwaha, a resident of Sarkoha village got the diamond of 5.69 carat in a field in the area in Panna district. He deposited it with the mineral resources department office on Saturday, said Panna diamond office authority Anupam Singh.
Panna district, 413 km north east of Bhopal in Bundelkhand region, has the only diamond producing mine in the country, which is under operation, as per the department officials.
Panna diamond office authority Anupam Singh said, “The diamond that the lessee has found may get him about Rs 20 lakh on its auction. Earlier, the same person got a diamond of 4.4 carat about a week back, which was, however, of better quality and was valued about at Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh. The lessee was assisted by three others in his work.”
The labourer got the piece of land on lease on March 1, 2019 and the lease period will expire on December 31, 2019. “It rarely happens when a person gets another diamond twice within a week or so,” he said.
Talking to the media Kishor said, “I am extremely happy that Mother Earth blessed me with this gift of diamonds. I make both ends meet by doing labour work. I will share whatever money I get with my partners Ajay Singh, Mahadev Kushwaha, Purshotam Lal and Vimal who also put in hard labour.”
He said he wanted to spend the money on education of his children.
Source: hindustantimes
Diamond purchases at De Beers’ latest sale in Botswana plummeted 44 per cent, as the industry struggles with weaker consumer spending and the rise of lab-grown stones.
The world’s largest diamond miner said on Wednesday that sales of rough diamonds were $280m at last week’s sale compared with $503m in the same period a year ago.
The sharp decline follows another weak sale last month. So far this year, at $2.9bn, De Beers’ rough diamond sales are 26 per cent lower than the $3.9bn recorded at the same time last year. In July, Russian diamond producer Alrosa reported a 51 per cent fall in diamond sales.
“The current malaise in the market is due to oversupply,” said Paul Zimnisky, an analyst in New York, who said diamond buyers had too much inventory.
Macroeconomic uncertainty and, in particular, the trade war between the US and China, the world’s two largest diamond-consuming countries, has fuelled nervousness among wholesalers and retailers.
Diamond buyers, who polish and cut diamonds for retailers, are struggling to make money this year due to lower prices and tighter credit, prompting them to delay purchases.
Tiffany’s on Wednesday reported a 3 per cent decline in like-for-like sales, with the luxury retailer’s chief executive Alessandro Bogliolo warning that unrest in Hong Kong was “taking a toll on our business”, as did a drop in Chinese tourists visiting the US.
Shares in Signet, the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewellery, have fallen more than 60 per cent this year.
Increased sales of lab-grown diamonds, which are chemically identical to traditional stones, are also “taking a very precious piece of the mined industry’s modest growth”, noted Mr Zimnisky.
De Beers has responded by cutting production — with a target of 31m carats this year compared with 35.3m lin 2018 — and pledging to increase the amount of money it spends on marketing diamonds.
Anish Aggarwal, a partner at consulting firm Gemdax, said economic uncertainty was being aggravated by retailers shifting to a “just-in-time” stocking model.
De Beers, which made up around 10 per cent of Anglo-American’s earnings in the first half of this year, sells most of its diamonds to approved customers at 10 “sights” a year in Africa.
As an incentive to buyers, at the latest sale it increased the amount of stones customers were allowed to reject in each lot purchased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, according to people familiar with the auction.
Source: Financial times
Alrosa’s knack for recovering unusually shaped diamonds has scaled new heights with the discovery of a rough stone resembling a fish.
“In the photo, you see a very rare specimen: a rough-diamond crystal which pretends to be a fish,” the Russian miner wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday announcing the find.
As with its other similar hauls, Alrosa hooked the catch to a marketing goal, using the occasion to emphasize the care it takes to preserve sea life around its mines. Alrosa ecologists release “hundreds of thousands” of fish into rivers in Yakutia and its other mining regions every year, the company explained in the post. In October, it plans to introduce “valuable” broad whitefish into Siberian waters.
Last summer, the company unveiled a rough diamond resembling a soccer ball in the middle of the World Cup taking place in Russia, for which it was a sponsor. The company also found a stone that looked like a skull in time for Halloween, and stumbled upon a heart-shaped piece a few weeks before Valentine’s Day this year.
Source: diamonds.net
De Beers’ profit dropped in the first half of the year as weak demand at the trade and consumer levels impacted diamond prices, the company said Thursday.
The rough market was subdued due to high inventories in both the midstream and the retail sector, as well as a slowdown in growth of consumer demand, the miner explained. The US-China tariff dispute, protests in Hong Kong and the strong US dollar hit retail performances outside the US, especially in China and the Gulf region. In the US, retailers’ store closures and reduction of stocks weighed on polished demand, creating a further negative effect for the rough business, De Beers added.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) slumped 27% to $518 million as a result of the impact on margins, the miner reported. Total underlying earnings fell 7% to $187 million. Revenue slid 17% to $2.65 billion, with rough-diamond sales decreasing 21% to $2.3 billion. Other revenues came from businesses such as Element Six, its industrial-diamond unit, and De Beers Jewellers, its high-end retail chain.
“The lower rough-diamond sales reflected higher-than-expected polished stocks at retailers and the midstream at the beginning of 2019, with overall midstream inventory levels continuing to be high throughout the first half,” De Beers noted.
De Beers’ rough-price index, measuring prices on a like-for-like basis, fell 4% for the period versus a year earlier. The average selling price declined 7% to $151 per carat, influenced by a change in the sales mix caused by the weaker conditions.
The company expects those challenges to continue in the short term, but also foresees an improvement as the industry reduces its inventory and consumer demand rises.
“Underlying GDP [gross domestic product] growth remains supportive of consumer-demand growth, and is expected to bring midstream and retailer stocks back to more normalized levels as we move into 2020, subject to an improving macroeconomic environment,” De Beers said.
Last week, De Beers reduced its production outlook following low demand, forecasting output of 31 million carats this year, whereas it had previously expected to recover 31 million to 33 million carats. Production fell 11% to 15.6 million carats during the first half, as the company chose not to increase mining levels at other deposits to compensate for a lull at the Venetia mine. Output at the site in South Africa has fallen amid its transition from open-pit to underground operations.
Source: diamonds.net