Locations of 2019 drill sections in the Derkson Corridor at Hook Lake. (Image: Purepoint Uranium)SASKATCHEWAN - The partners in the Hook Lake uranium joint venture have approved a 2019 exploration budget of $3 million. Situated within the Patterson Uranium District, Hook Lake is owned jointly by Cameco Corp. (39.5%), Orano Canada (39.5%) and Purepoint Uranium Group (operator and holder of a 21% in...Read More
SASKATCHEWAN - Fission 3.0 Corp. of Kelowna, B.C., is preparing for its winter drilling program at four high priority targets - Wales Lake (two holes), Patterson Lake North (five holes), Key Lake (nine holes) and Cree Bay (two holes). About 4,400 metres of drilling is planned.Fission 3 recently completed an $8-million financing with which to fund the work.The Wales Lake occurrence is similar to Fi...Read More
RAPAPORT... Somewhere between the volatility of cryptocurrencies and thestability of diamond prices lies an opportunity for investors. That is, atleast, what several new initiatives to create diamond-backed crypto-coins arebetting on.In fact, developers of these coins, or "tokens," areconfident the asset class will offer a solution to challenges facing both thecrypto market and the diamond trade....Read More
RAPAPORT... Stones must have a stable color to qualify as padparadschasapphires, according to a ruling by the Laboratory Manual HarmonisationCommittee (LMHC), a global alliance of gemological groups.Gemstones that turn pink during a color-stability test donot meet the requirements for the term, LMHC concluded at a meeting in Lucerne,Switzerland, last month. The committee comprises representat...Read More
Global miner Anglo American (LON:AAL) is ending 2018 on a high note, the company reported Tuesday. Anglo expects total production for the year to be 2% above of previous guidance, with costs decreasing by 5%."We are also confident about the outlook, with production expected to increase by 3% in 2019, with cost inflation fully absorbed by our productivity and cost improvements," chief executive M...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co., Swarovski and Pandora are the preferredjewelry brands among more affluent immigrants in the US, according to a survey byMVI Marketing. Researchers asked 702 Asian-American, Hispanic andLatino-American consumers with an annual household income of $80,000 or more to name the threebrands whose jewelry they own. Tiffany was top, with 42% of respondents sayingthey ha...Read More
RAPAPORT... Zales Jewelers is embroiled in a dispute with a customerover whether the repair program that came with his diamond ring covered thesetting, or just the stone. Gordon Henry Lovette has sued the Signet Jewelers-owned retailer,claiming it failed to honor a lifetime-repair plan. Zales refusedto fix a loose stone in Lovette's ring earlier this year, even though he hadbrought it in for...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers has launched a brick-and-mortar conceptstore for its e-commerce brand James Allen. The store, which opened on Friday in the Georgetown area ofWashington, DC, will feature an immersive gallery experience aimed at thebrand's younger consumer base, the retailer said last week. "We're excited to continue executing Signet's customer-first,omni-channel strate...Read More
RAPAPORT... A Bulgari necklace fetched $200,000 at Phillips auctionhouse's first New York sale, exceeding its presale estimate of $120,000 to$180,000. The piece includes 39.35 carats of oval-shaped rubiesand 6 carats of round brilliant-cut diamonds. It was the top-selling lot at theauction, which earned $2.4 million overall, Phillips said. A ring featuring an emerald-cut, 4.91-carat, faint-pi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - ALROSA sold $266.6 million of rough diamonds in November, and $4.1 billion worth in the first 11 months of 2018. ALROSA's total sales in November of rough and polished diamonds were down 18% on the year to $274 million, with polished diamond sales of $7.4 million. Meanwhile, total diamond sales in the January-November period increased by 3.7% on the year to $4.2...Read More
LISBON – Angola will conduct its first diamond auction in January as part of the southwest African country’s plan to open its economy to foreign investors, state-owned diamond-trading company Sodiam said.Seven gemstones from the Lulo mine, located in the northeast, will come under the hammer, Sodiam said in an emailed statement Monday. They include a 114 ct stone and a pink, 46 ct gem....Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 78-carat white diamond from the Mothae mine in Lesotho. The diamond (pictured above) is the largest special size stone recovered through the new 1.1Mtpa Mothae treatment plant following the commencement of commissioning and recovery of commercial diamonds and highlights Mothae's potential to regularly recover large diamonds, the miner s...Read More
RAPAPORT... Dominion Diamond Mines CEO Patrick Evans has stepped down withimmediate effect after a year at the company, the miner confirmed to RapaportNews Sunday. Evans joined the Canada-based producer in November 2017 afterits $1.2 billion acquisition by Washington Companies. Prior to that, he was CEOof Mountain Province for 12 years. Shane Durgin, Dominion's chief operating officer, will...Read More
Sustained investment in people a big plus for consultancySPONSOREDbyrnecutMahenge the Cinderella of the graphite space?SPONSOREDblack rock miningSky is the limit for BSK at Amarillo GrandeSPONSOREDblue sky uraniumNew Energy brings experience to new dawnSPONSOREDnew energy mineralsCapstone said Monday the polymetallic underground mine now boasted 89% more compliant reserves at 6.2 million tonnes gr...Read More
Base metal prices rose on the London Metal Exchange by the close on Tuesday December 11, with copper acting as the best performer among the complex.Specifically, the three-month copper price surged by 1.3% to close at $2,590 per tonne. "LME copper continues to run rather positive micro-dynamics. Total LME stocks continue to see drawdowns, with net holdings edging to a fresh 2018 low of...Read More
Flat steel import prices in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have remained stable over the past week due to limited demand near year-end, sources said on Tuesday December 11. Demand was subdued because buyers do not want to build up inventories before finalizing their year-end accounting procedures, they told Fastmarkets. UAE Chinese offers for hot-rolled coil (HRC) into the UAE wer...Read More
Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Alum?-nio (CBA) will invest 30 million Reais ($7.7 million) to increase its aluminium billet production capacity, the company's primary operations director Luis Jorge Nunes told Fastmarkets MB on Monday December 10.The expansion will change some of the currently halted aluminium-plate furnaces into aluminium billet production units. The company's production capacit...Read More
Comex copper prices hit a one-week high in the US morning on Tuesday December 11 with the continued trade actions between China and the United States guiding the market. The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 5.15 cents to $2.7715 per lb today. Earlier, the contract traded at $2.7805, the highest since December 4. Trade tensions betwe...Read More
TradeCloud is set to give its users the opportunity to report business concluded on the platform to Fastmarkets automatically, according to the former's chief executive officer.Launched in October 2017, TradeCloud is a digital metals trading platform where producers, consumers and traders can meet to exchange information, negotiate contracts and conclude business.Offers can be sent to multiple mar...Read More
Fastmarkets has amended the data collection process for its US and European aluminium premiums assessments to include deals done on and reported by trading platform TradeCloud Services Pte Ltd. Fastmarkets' trained price reporters will continue to collect data points in the forms of transactions, bids, offers, assessments and deals heard via telephone calls, emails, face-to-face meetings and onlin...Read More