RAPAPORT... First place is usually something to strive for, but being the number-one target for cyberattacks that steal customer data is not a distinction retailers want. As jewelers move increasingly toward online offerings, their private information becomes less secure, while hackers become more sophisticated in their retrieval methods. The retail sector had a higher number of data breaches...Read More

A second wave of Covid-19 infections will hit the global commodities markets even harder than the initial outbreak, market sources told Fastmarkets on Monday May 11.Five new infections have surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan where the outbreak first came to light, while 11 new cases have been recorded in Shulan city in Jilin province. And in the South Korean capital Seoul, the authori...Read More

RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 171-carat, gem-quality diamond from its Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.The stone is the miner's 15th over 100 carats from Lulo to date, and the second in that size category this year, following the discovery of a 117-carat stone in January. The new find is also the fourth largest ever recovered from the site, the company said Monday. Lucapa retrieve...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Lucara has been forced to re-think a major expansion of its Karowe mine in Botswana after COVID-19 left it with first quarter losses of $3.2m. That compares with a profit of $7.4m for the same three months last year. The Canada-based miner has continued full production throughout the coronavirus crisis at Karowe, a mine famed for exceptional type IIA diamonds, and for having p...Read More

RAPAPORT... A Canadian court has ordered the Rio Tinto subsidiary that manages the Diavik mine to release inventory belonging to Dominion Diamond Mines it had been holding as a guarantee for missed payments.Diavik Diamond Mines (DDMI) has certain rights to extra shares in the mine if Dominion goes bankrupt with outstanding debts to the company, the court said earlier this month. However, DDMI...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers has launched an online platform to sell its rough diamonds. It's offering its registered buyers a new opportunity in a market severely weakened by COVID-19. De Beers' third Sight of the year , in March, was canceled and the fourth, in May, was virtually wiped out by travel restrictions. The new "Buy platform" allows users to search and buy in four categories - ve...Read More

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified major Rio Tinto has introduced Covid-19 testing at its Diavik diamond mine, in the Northwest Territories, in Canada, as an additional precautionary measure to protect employees and community members.The miner said over the weekend that not-for-profit public health experts GuardRX have installed an on-site laboratory at Diavik to conduct a testing progra...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Young Diamantaires group is planning to become a more structured organization, with regional chapters and an online networking platform for registered members, its founder told Rapaport News. The initiative of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has expanded since it launched in 2016 as a small club that met at trade shows to discuss the sector's future. With close...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A spectacular asscher-cut Golconda five-carat diamond ring by Harry Winston has been sold at auction.It was valued at $600,000 but the price, paid by an unnamed online buyer from New Orelans, Louisiana, USA, was not disclosed. The 5.06 carat stone, graded by GIA as internally flawless, D-color, and type IIa, was described by sellers as the "ultimate diamond". The ring was made by t...Read More

TSX-listed Lucara Diamond Corporation has posted a net loss of $3.2-million, or $0.01 a share, for the quarter ended March 31.This compares with a net income of $7.4-million and earnings a share of $0.02 apiece reported for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.AdvertisementLucara explains that a decrease in total revenue had a significant impact on the quarter’s results.“The first tender f...Read More

RAPAPORT... Lightbox, De Beers' lab-grown diamond jewelry brand, has delayed commissioning its new facility in Portland, Oregon, by a few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic."The building itself and plant infrastructure [are] already complete, and we are now in a phase of installing and commissioning the deposition equipment," Lightbox CEO Steve Coe said in an email to Rapaport News. "To ensu...Read More

Gold royalty company Franco-Nevada will fund up to $150 million of Solgold's Alpala project in Ecuador, the mine operator said on Monday May 11. The net smelters returns (NSR) agreement includes an initial $100 million to Solgold which will pay a perpetual 1% NSR interest. The total amount could increase by $50 million and to a 1.5% NSR interest rate within eight months. NSR is the amount of reven...Read More

US Midwest aluminium premiums have slumped in reaction to the ramifications of the spread of Covid-19. The US aluminium market has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to remain challenged for much of this year. The extent of the impact will depend upon factors including how long it will take for demand from the major end-use markets to recover and what the mills' supply response...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month lead price increased during morning trading on Monday May 11, with a fresh cancellation of some 14,025 tonnes prompting a 1.5% price incline, while steady buying allowed copper futures also to improve. LME lead's outright price was recently at $1,670 per tonne, climbing from an intra-morning low of $1,641 per tonne, while turnover was moderate with just over 1...Read More

Nickel briquettes will be allowed for delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange from October 16 for contracts for November delivery onwards, the Exchange announced on Friday May 8.The announcement, however, did not specify designated delivery warehouses or the rate of premium and discount applied to delivery warehouses at different locations, and will be separately specified an...Read More

The London Metal Exchange will not rush back into trading on the open outcry ring and is happy with the effectiveness of the current electronic pricing model, chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain said."The LME will be adopting a very staged and cautious return to its office, given the effectiveness of our work at home practices," Chamberlain said, speaking in video format on May 7 on the LM...Read More

Sentiment in the Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) export billet market improved over the weekend amid ongoing demand from China as well as increasing scrap costs, sources said.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $345 per tonne on May 11, up by $9 from Thursday May 7.  Several cargoes of Ukraine-origin billet totaling 90,000 tonnes were sold to C...Read More

The value added tax (VAT) rate in Saudi Arabia will increase to 15% - from the current 5% - in effect from July 1, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance announced on Monday May 11.The country had initially imposed 5% VAT from January 1, 2018 alongside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - forthe first time in the history of the two countries.Saudi Arabia's Ministry of...Read More

China imported around 1,820 tonnes of ferro-niobium in March, a drop of 43% from 3,200 tonnes over the corresponding period in March 2019, according to the latest official but unconfirmed data seen by Fastmarkets. China's imports of ferro-niobium started to fall in December 2019 when the volume slid to 2,915 tonnes from about 5,954 tonnes in the previous month. The total imported volume in th...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesFranco-Nevada will receive a perpetual 1% net smelter return interest from SolGold calculated with reference to NSR from the Cascabel licence area in Ecuador.Read More