(IDEX Online) - Chow Tai Fook today reported a 5.8 per cent increase in the value of Q2 retail sales, driven by an influx of tourists from the Mainland to Hong Kong and Macau.But sales across the rest of China, where CTF has over 7,200 outlets, were almost flat, with growth of just 0.6 per cent.The number of Mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong was back to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Gem Diamonds has recovered its third +100-ct diamond of the year at its Letseng mine, in Lesotho.But it's still leaves the UK-based miner at well below its long-term average of eight +100-ct recoveries a year.The latest find is a 101.96-ct Type IIa diamond. Gem did not provide further details.In July it recovered a 163.91-ct yellow diamond and in March it recovered of a 122-ca...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Raiders fled a jewelry store in California, USA, after an employee fired a shot.Five hooded suspects used hammers to smash showcases at Prestige Jewelers, inside the Manhattan Village shopping mall at Manhattan Beach, on Friday (6 October)."An employee of the store responded by using a firearm to shoot towards the suspects," said local police."The suspects fled the store to awaitin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An auction billed as the "world's first" of rough tourmaline - the brightly-colored gemstone - is to take place in Bangkok in November.Iridis, new owners of the Jagoda mine, in Zambia, says it will showcase the largest collection of exceptional pink, green, and bi-color tourmalines.It also says it's using the first-ever tourmaline grading system for prospective buye...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tracr and Sarine are to collaborate on a traceability solution for diamonds entering the G7 nations.Tracr is the De Beers-owned company based in London that has developed what it describes as "the world's first fully distributed diamond blockchain platform".It is working with Sarine, the Israel-based diamond tech company behind the widely-used Diamond Journey traceability solu...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Russia is using bags of cash and diamonds to buy weapons technology for the war in Ukraine, according to an expert quoted by the financial news website Insider. It circumvents banking restrictions using intermediary accounts in Turkey and the UAE, and shell companies in Kazakhstan and Armenia, according to Pavlo Verkhniatskyi, a member of the International Working Group on Rus...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A Jacob & Co. watch owned by rapper Jay-Z sold for $1.5m at a charity event to help ex-prisoners.The white gold Caviar Tourbillon World Timer's dial and bracelet are set with 498 baguette diamonds, with a total weight of 35.52 carats. It keeps time in 25 cities.Jay-Z donated the timepiece for a star-studded casino night and auction in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, that r...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Petra saw rough prices dip by up to 18 per cent as it brought forward its Tender 2 ahead of India's voluntary two-month moratorium.The UK-based miner has sold 344,554 carats so far - three quarters of the total tender volume - for $30.2m and says it is currently offering the remaining 25 per cent. It will release full sales results in the next few days.The average price per ca...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers rough sales slumped to just $200m during cycle 8, the second lowest figure since it started reporting Sight totals in 2016.The company responded by cancelling the online rough auctions, which account for around 10 per cent of its sales, for the rest of the year.There has been only one occasion in the last seven years when De Beers reported a lower sales total - $116m in cy...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The 11.28-carat Infinite Blue, one of the world's largest blue diamonds, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong for $25.3m.It just missed its $26m to $37m pre-auction estimate, but did achieve the third highest price ever for a blue diamond sold in Asia.The radiant-cut fancy vivid blue VS2 Type IIb stone, set in an 18 karat white and pink gold ring with a halo of pink and white trap...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province reported a 45 per cent drop in revenue, as the company sought to defend it prices by holding back its higher value goods.During Q3 the miner sold a total of 478,653 carats for US$45.3m from Gahcho Kue, the deposit it operates jointly with De Beers in Canada's Northwest Territories. Average price per carat was US$95.In Q3 2022 Mountain Province sold 805,227 ca...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A company that supplies heavy equipment has been charged with health and safety breaches following the death of a worker at the Gahcho Kue diamond mine, in Canada last September.The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) has filed seven charges against SMS Equipment Inc., based in Acheson, Alberta, over the death of one of its employees who was working at the mine....Read More
(IDEX Online) - The company that owns the tailings dam at Jagersfontein, South Africa, is facing both civil and criminal cases over the breach last September that killed three people and caused widespread devastation.Lawyers for residents whose homes were left in ruins by a river of thick, gray sludge say they're taking a class civil action against Jagersfontein Developments, a division of Du...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Hedda Schupak, award-winning editor-in-chief at the JCK magazine for nine years, has died aged 62 after battling lung cancer.She was "a legendary figure in the jewelry trade," said current JCK editor-in-chief, Victoria Gomelsky.Schupak was appointed JCK's fashion editor in 1991 and became editor of its Luxury and Trendz magazines in 1997 after the walkout of colleagues who wen...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sarine is introducing a traceability solution for melee diamonds.The Israel-based diamond tech company is expanding its existing technology to cover the smaller stones (generally under 0.2-cts) widely used in jewelry settings."To guarantee responsible sourcing of melee and enhance consumer confidence, we specifically aim to enhance the certainty regarding the diamonds' provena...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Jewelry, clothes and works of art owned by Barbara Walters, the iconic US journalist, are to be auctioned by Bonhams in New York.Among the highlights is a Harry Winston diamond ring, weighing 13.84 carats (estimate: $600,000 - $900,000), which she received from Merv Adelson, the real estate developer and TV executive who was her third and fourth husband (They married and divorced t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Two senior members of Lucara's management team are stepping down, days after the Canadian miner walked away from its sales agreement with HB Antwerp.Zara Boldt has quit as chief financial officer and John Armstrong has resigned as vice president of technical services, the company said in a statement. They will both leave in December.Their departures come as Lucara navigates ch...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US watch and jewelry sales suffered a seventh consecutive month of decline in August, according to the latest Department of Commerce figures.They were down 3.4 per cent, a slight recovery from 4.3 per cent in July, and 4.5 per cent in June.The global economy shows no clear signs of recovery and that's impacting consumer spending.Signet, the world's largest diamond jewelry...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Indian mining billionaire Harpal Randhawa, his son, and four others died when their plane crashed en route to the Murowa diamond mine, in Zimbabwe.The Cessna 206 aircraft belonged to Randhawa's RZM Murowa, a company that part-owns and operates the mine. It also produces gold and coal and refines nickel and copper.Randhawa and his 22-year-old son Amer set off from Harare on Fri...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Botswana government is rethinking its proposed deal with HB Antwerp, after Canadian miner Lucara last week announced it was pulling out of a 10-year sales agreement with the company.The government said in March that it would be buying a 24 per cent stake in HB, a new venture that pledged to reinvent the diamond supply chain.But that was only an agreement in principle, and...Read More