RAPAPORT... Walter William Hanneman, a gemologist, author and instrument maker, died on December 12 at the age of 93, his family announced this week.Born in 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois, he entered the world of gems and minerals thanks to his father, Walter Mooney Hanneman, an avid lapidarist. The young Hanneman taught the subject to himself, later claiming to be the "world's foremost self-orda...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. will offer a necklace featuring an 80-carat diamond, expected to be its most expensive piece ever, at the reopening of its New York Fifth Avenue flagship store next year.The oval-cut, D-color, internally flawless stone, which the jeweler sourced from Botswana and will set in-house in New York, is at the center of the piece, Tiffany said Tuesday. It is also the largest...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucara is to operate the Karowe mine, in Botswana for another 25 years after the government extended its mining license.The move will allow it to pursue an underground expansion program costing more than $500m, with first ore anticipated from underground in 2026. The company anticipates financing to be in place by the second half of this year.Canada-based Lucara is known for its la...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co is to sell the most expensive piece of jewelry in its 183-year history - a necklace with an 80-carat diamond that is expected to fetch at least $10m.The New York-based jeweler, founded in 1837, declined to say what it paid for the gem but told the fashion Bible Women's Wear Daily (WWD) the necklace's price tag would be "within the eight-figure range"...Read More
RAPAPORT... The passing of Henry Verstandig, founder of Verstandig & Sons Diamonds, is a sad occasion for the diamond industry. It marks the end of a generation that formed the foundation of New York's diamond district. Henry and his brother Willy were true diamantaires who reflected the honest values and integrity of the diamond trade. They were traditional De Beers sightholders who loved the...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, January 5, 2021, Las Vegas... Diamond trading was seasonally slow in December as the industry's focus shifted to retail and as diamantaires took their end-of-year break. Sentiment received a boost from strong holiday e-commerce sales, the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, and the US approval of a $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package.Polished prices firmed as supply de...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Botswana government has allowed Lucara Diamond Corp. to mine at the Karowe deposit until 2046, enabling it to pursue its plans to launch underground operations.The country's minister of mineral resources, green technology and energy security approved Lucara's application for a 25-year renewal of its mining license, the company reported Monday. The new permit is effective immed...Read More
RAPAPORT... The US economy is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least the latter end of the year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)."As we closed out 2020, it was an end to a whirlwind year whose challenging economic environment will almost certainly continue in 2021," NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said Monday. "The coming year might be just as eventf...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales at Mene, an online retailer that prices its precious-metal jewelry based on weight, soared more than 60% last year as the up-and-coming company ramped up its operations.Revenue jumped 64% to CAD 21.4 million ($16.8 million) in 2020, the Toronto, Canada-based jeweler reported Monday in a preliminary trading update. The average order value rose 63% to CAD 1,530 ($1,201), outwe...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Masked men armed with metal bars made off with over $500,000 of jewelry in a lightning raid on a store in southern Israel.The gang of three cleared the contents of the shelves into large sacks, emptied the safe and were gone in under two minutes.Toni Roytman, owner of Roytman Diamonds, a family business at a mall in the city of Beersheba, said in a Facebook post that "due to techni...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Operations at India's only industrial mine - located near a tiger reserve - have come to halt.The environmental clearance lease, allowing mining to take place at the Majhgawan mine (pictured), near the town of Panna, in Madhya Pradesh, expired on 31 December 2020.It has been reported that COVID-19 has delayed renewal of the lease and work is not likely to resume for up t...Read More
(IDEX Online)- Lucapa today announced the recovery of yet another +100-carat diamond, its 17th since commercial operations began at Lulo, in Angola, five years ago.The Australian miner said it was significant that the 113-carat gem-quality white stone (pictured) was found in a new focus area of its kimberlite exploration program, indicating there may be more large and high-value diamonds.Lucapa, o...Read More
RAPAPORT... Hong Kong recorded its gentlest decline in hard-luxury revenues for a year and a half, as a drop in coronavirus cases boosted the local retail market.Retail sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts fell 16% year on year to HKD 2.78 billion ($358.3 million) in November, according to data Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department released Monday. Sales across all reta...Read More
RAPAPORT... A new project to combat undisclosed synthetics has launched in India, offering retailers low-cost screening and inscription using a model based on gold hallmarking.Naturalmark will place tamper-proof seals on parcels of loose diamonds, as well as laser-inscribing finished jewelry, enabling transparency at a consumer level, Surat-based Gourav Sethi, its founder, told Rapaport News...Read More
RAPAPORT... Russia has begun its chairmanship of the Kimberley Process (KP) after the organization deferred the role by a year due to disruption stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.The country will chair the KP in 2021, having been scheduled to hold that position in 2020, while Botswana's chairmanship will occur in 2022, instead of this year. The KP took the decision in August after receiving...Read More
IDEX Online) - Canadian explorer Star Diamond says it is encouraged by the gems recovered from the ninth of 10 bulk sampling trenches at its Star-Orion South project.It announced a total of 3,534 diamonds weighing 210.68 carats, among them three larger Type IIa stones, weighing 10.13, 8.10 and 7.29 carats. Altogether there were 25 diamonds weighing one carat or more.Inn 2018 an independent prelimi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - There were few signs of a sustained recovery in December's prices, with flurries of activity among certain sizes of stone, and no movement at all in others. Fancies, especially smaller sizes, fared less well overall than rounds. September was very positive, but since then we've now had three sluggish months. HIGHLIGHTED CHANGESROUNDS0.30-0.39 ct. I-L...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Leibish Polnaur, veteran of the color diamond market, bought a quarter of the stones at Argyle's record-breaking tender.He outbid rivals for 16 of the 62 gems in the penultimate sale, marking the closure of the iconic mine, in Australia, after 37 years.Mr Polnaur, founder of Israel-based Leibish, said asking prices 15 per cent higher than last year so he upped his bids by "20...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. investors approved LVMH's $15.8 billion acquisition of the company at a special meeting on Wednesday, paving the way for the transaction to close early in the new year.Shareholders of the storied US jeweler voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of the modified deal, LVMH said in a statement Thursday. More than 99% of votes were in favor, Reuters reported.LVMH expects t...Read More
RAPAPORT...Pandora expects its full-year results for 2020 will exceed the company's earlier predictions, as strong sales in the fourth quarter outweighed the negative impact of coronavirus restrictions.The Danish jeweler expects revenue growth to be at least one percentage point better than the high end of its guidance range, it said Wednesday. It initially predicted sales would drop 14% to 17%. T...Read More