RAPAPORT... Alrosa has appointed Akil Zubir as managing director of its Belgium office, the miner said Thursday. He will succeed Sergey Panchekhin, who has worked for the company for more than 20 years and plans to retire in late October.Zubir, one of seven candidates, joined Alrosa in 2017 as head of its insurance department. During his tenure, the company settled a large insurance loss rela...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Celebrity jeweler Joseph DuMouchelle, who twice auctioned the engagement ring given by Donald Trump to his second wife, has admitted masterminding a multi-million dollar gem fraud.He tricked a US businessman into investing $12m into a 77-carat diamond known as The Yellow Rose in 2019. DuMouchelle admitted via a videolink to the federal court that he withdrew most of the money...Read More
RAPAPORT... Bonhams has promoted Leslie Roskind to lead its Hong Kong jewelry department, it said Monday.Roskind, who has been with Bonhams since April 2019, will oversee the procuring and selling of jewelry in the municipality, and will also liaise with the auction house's global jewelry team on various projects. "With her international expertise...we look forward to advancing our sourcing and bu...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Dominion Diamond Mines, which filed for insolvency in April, has sold its Ekati mine, in Canada after receiving a solitary bid.The buyers are part of The Washington Companies, a privately held conglomerate based in Montana, USA, that bought Dominion in 2017 for $1.2bn. Toronto-based Dominion, the world's third largest producer of rough diamonds by value, shut Ekati...Read More
RAPAPORT... Charles & Colvard, the producer of synthetic-moissanite jewelry, has launched a line of bridal and fashion pieces featuring lab-grown diamonds."There is a growing awareness of and demand for lab-created gems," Don O'Connell, the company's CEO, said last week. "We believe this addition will allow us to tap into the estimated $5.2 billion lab-created diamond opportunity, thus ca...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered an additional two large, high-quality diamonds from its Let??eng mine in Lesotho.An "exceptional" quality, 166-carat, type II diamond was unearthed last week, the same day the company found a yellow diamond weighing 77 carats, the miner said Monday. The 166-carat stone is the 12th over 100 carats Gem Diamonds has recovered this year.Earlier this month the min...Read More
RAPAPORT... VicenzaOro staged the first major international jewelry trade fair since before Covid-19 amid strict safety measures, with buyers booking modest orders.Attendance was well below pre-pandemic levels due to the absence of participants from the Americas and Asia at the Italian show, which took place on September 12 to 14. However, the mood was upbeat, as visitors to both the physical...Read More
Rising expectations for holiday season. Deloitte predicts 1.5% growth in US retail sales, driven by 25%-35% spike in e-commerce. Jewelers with strong online and social media presence doing well; others struggling. Trading momentum slowed since reopening, with dealers cautious as global Covid-19 cases increase. 5 ct., D, IF strong due to scarcity, fewer suppliers, and demand from wealthy consumers....Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamond bourses in Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a cooperation deal following the recent peace accord between the two Middle East countries.The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) will open a representative office in Dubai, while the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) will establish an office Ramat Gan, the organizations said Thursday following a virtual cerem...Read More
RAPAPORT... It's not often a newcomer sweeps in to buy the largest diamond available on the market. Such deals are usually reserved for high-end jewelers such as Graff, Moussaieff, Harry Winston, or even large-scale retailers like Chow Tai Fook or Tiffany & Co.But the sale of the 1,758-carat Sewel?? in January by Lucara Diamond Corp. raised eyebrows for the two entities that scooped the a...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond tech firm Sarine has joined forces with the National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC) in China to offer "light performance" grading reports.They go beyond the 4Cs and measure brilliance, sparkle, fire and light symmetry, on a scale for inimum to exceptional, resulting in an overall light performance grade. The collaboration combines Sarine's development in AI-based...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Israel and Dubai diamond exchanges today signed an historic agreement to collaborate, following normalization of relations between the two countries earlier this week.The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) will open an office in Ramat Gan as part of the agreement, and The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) will open a representative office in Dubai, UAE.Both sides will share expe...Read More
RAPAPORT... US retail sales rose in August for the fourth consecutive month, though the rate of growth slowed from July, government data showed.Overall retail sales increased 2.6% compared to the same period last year, and 0.6% from the previous month, according to figures the US Census Bureau released Wednesday. That followed a 0.9% month-on-month and 10% year-on-year increase in July. The termin...Read More
RAPAPORT... Dominion Diamond Mines has sold its Ekati mine in Canada to affiliates of its owner, the Washington Companies, for $126 million amid struggles with mounting debt.The offer came from Canadian Diamond Holdings and CA Canadian Diamond Mines, which initiated the original stalking-horse bid, a bottom-floor amount that sets a certain financial expectation that must be met. No other qualified...Read More
RAPAPORT... LVMH has asked a court to delay Tiffany & Co.'s lawsuit against the luxury group, prompting the US jeweler to renew its allegations of foul play by its would-be acquirer. Tiffany had petitioned the Delaware Chancery Court to fast-track the trial to enable the parties to close by the upcoming transaction deadline, the New York-based retailer said Wednesday. But LVMH later filed...Read More
RAPAPORT... The decline in Swiss watch exports continued to ease slightly in August, as orders from China rose.Total shipments fell 12% year on year to CHF 1.34 billion ($1.48 billion), the sixth consecutive monthly decline.However, the decrease was softer than July's 17% drop, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported Thursday."While the trend in Swiss watch exports is still down, the i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says it will again offer buyers zero buyouts and extra flexibility at its rough trading session later this month.It says it is aiming to "nurture the green shoots of market recovery," after August sales leapt to $217m, from a monthly average of just $30m during the depths of the pandemic.The Russian miner acknowledged that the market has yet to reach a balance and there was...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has unveiled actress Ana de Armas as the star of its first celebrity campaign, which will debut at next week's Emmy Awards.De Armas recently received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Knives Out, and will soon appear in the upcoming James Bond movie No Time to Die. The NDC approached the rising star as she "radiates with poise and modernit...Read More
RAPAPORT... US retail sales are forecast to increase by up to 1.5% this holiday season, despite uncertain consumer sentiment and a jump in the unemployment rate, Deloitte said Tuesday.The consulting firm expects overall holiday retail sales to rise 1% to 1.5% for the November-to-January period, to about $1.15 trillion, it said. That growth is a slowdown from the same time last year, when holiday s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has unearthed five high-quality, blue, type IIb diamonds from its Cullinan mine in South Africa in the span of one week, it said Wednesday.The stones, which weigh 25.75, 21.25, 17.57, 11.42 and 9.61 carats, have been assessed by the company and determined to be individual diamonds, rather than part of a larger whole. The last significant blue diamond Petra recovered was...Read More