(IDEX Online) - The number of bidders at the recent 2019 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender saw double-digit growth with buyers vying to get their hands on some of the last diamonds to come from the Argyle diamond mine. The mine is scheduled to close at the end of 2020.While Rio Tinto does not disclose the value of winning bids, it said that over the past 19 years, the value of diamonds sold at Tender ha...Read More
(IDEX Online) - What the latest large finds from Mothae lack in quality, they more than make up for in size. Two diamonds of 220 carats and 127 carats were recovered from the treatment of recovery tailings. The 220-carat stone is the largest of the three 100+ carat stones recovered from the Lesotho mine since commercial production began in January 2019.Lucapa Diamond Company Limited, which ho...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Marketing company GemFind has announced a change in name to better reflect the digital marketing and website solutions it provides to its clients. The company will now be known as GemFind Digital Solutions (GDS). As part of the rebrand, GDS has also launched a new website that features educational training blogs on digital marketing, along with demos of the newly released Ring...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tennis icon Serena Williams has unveiled her first fine jewelry collection. Created in a collaboration with diamond manufacturer K.P. Sanghvi, Serena Williams Jewelry launched exclusively with Fred Meyer Jewelers online and at select stores and on Macys.com.The collection features over 70 core pieces that include items adorned with words that describe Williams, such as "queen"and "...Read More
RAPAPORT... Zvi Yehuda is a man of few words, but his accomplishments inthe diamond industry speak volumes. The 82-year-old Israel native is thecreator of numerous inventions that have changed the face of the trade, andeven the face of diamonds themselves. Yehuda first learned about diamonds in 1953 as a precocious16-year-old. His father, wanting to break into a sector that was closed tothose not...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company has unearthed two rough diamondsweighing more than 100 carats from its Mothae mine in Lesotho. The 220- and 127-carat stones, which are low-quality diamonds, werefound during the treatment of recovery tailings - ore that has already beenprocessed once. They are the second and third stones weighing more than 100carats recovered from Mothae since Lucapa began comme...Read More
RAPAPORT... Belgium's diamond trade slowed at a higherrate in October, reflecting global market weakness. Polished exports fell 30%to $671 million, compared with a 25% drop in September.Rough shipments also slumped, according to data from the Antwerp World DiamondCentre.Belgium Trade Data for October 2019 Read More
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Solar power is playing a major role in reducing daytime electricity bills and lowering diesel use in off-grid diesel-consuming areas, says SunRanch.Solar, whose clients are benefiting from below grid power costs and major diesel savings.“We reduce people’s daytime power costs by 60% to 70%,” SunRanch.Solar chairperson Charles Mostert told M...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamcor Mining returned to profit in the second fiscalquarter, as an efficiency program helped it reduce costs. The miner recorded a net profit of $350,676 for the threemonths ending September 30, versus a loss of $417,368 during the same period ayear ago, it said last week. The company shaved its expenses by reducing its usage of heavyequipment and fuel, it explained. Rough-diamond s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Singapore-based retailer SK Jewellery Group saw a heavy declinein sales for the third quarter amid economic challenges in key markets and theclosure of its gold-trading platform. Revenue fell 46% to SGD 32.6 million ($24 million), whilenet profit slumped 58% to SGD 359,000 ($263,889), the company said in a statement earlier this month. "Continuing tensions between Japan and Korea,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Swiss watch exports rose 1.5% to CHF 2.03 billion ($2.04billion) in October as increased orders from the US, China and Japan outweighed a significant drop in Hong Kong. "Overall growth was hindered by [a] very marked decline inHong Kong, while the rest of the world generally saw an upturn," the Federationof the Swiss Watch Industry said Tuesday. Unrest in the municipality has increasin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Stephane Fischler, President of the World Diamond Council (WDC), told government representatives at the 2019 Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary Meeting that the future of the process depends on them.During the address at the start of the Plenary Meeting in New Delhi, India, Fischer said that with the end of a three-year reform and review cycle, governments hold the future of the KP in...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. plans to create a new role of chief brand officer to replace its current head of merchandising. The recruit, who will come from outside the company and will also be an executive vice president, will take over from Pamela Cloud, the jeweler's senior vice presidentand chief merchandising officer. The new role will combine Tiffany's marketing and merchandising effo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - As the U.S. gears up for the biggest shopping weekend of the year, American Express has released data from its Shop Small Consumer Impact survey. According to the survey, 73 percent of people feel that empty storefronts are a national issue and 84 percent agree that the increase in empty storefronts and closing of small, independently owned businesses negatively affects...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Rio Tinto has announced its intention to take a majority ownership in the Star-Orion South diamond exploration site in Saskatchewan, Canada. Saskatoon-based Star Diamond Corporation announced that Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC), a fully owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, has provided notice to exercise its options under a Joint Venture agreement the two entered int...Read More
Diamond miner Trans Hex expects the delisting of its shares on the JSE to be concluded on December 3.It proposed the delisting in July, when it announced a share buyback programme to purchase the issued share capital of shareholders at R1 apiece.AdvertisementAt the time, it said the delisting would enable it to save on the costs of operating in a regulated environment, while its board felt the JSE...Read More
RAPAPORT... Diamcor Mining returned to profit in the second fiscalquarter, as an efficiency program helped it reduce costs. The miner recorded a net profit of $350,676 for the threemonths ending September 30, versus a loss of $417,368 during the same period ayear ago, it said last week. The company shaved its expenses by reducing its usage of heavyequipment and fuel, it explained. Rough-diamond s...Read More
World Diamond Council (WDC) president Stephane Fischler says that although the Kimberley Process (KP) requires a political process, it is in the collective interest of all participants that rough diamonds meet the expectations of the market.He opened the KP plenary meeting, in India, on Tuesday, which was expected to discuss the end of the KP’s three-year reform and review cycle and the futu...Read More
RAPAPORT... Zimbabwe plans to reduce the percentage of sales diamond miners must pay to the state, aiming to promote investment in more costly operations at the Marange fields.The government proposed a new royalty rate of 10% in theannual budget last week. Diamond producers currently pay 15% of gross revenues,but their overall costs have escalated as they shift toward hard-rock - or"conglomer...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales and profit slumped at Indian diamond manufacturerAsian Star in the second fiscal quarter as weak rough demand prompted it to reduceits trading activities. The Mumbai-based company supplements its core cuttingbusiness by reselling rough through its subsidiaries, Pranav Kapadia, AsianStar's chief manager for accounts and tax, explained to Rapaport NewsMonday. Revenue from that...Read More