London-listed Gem Diamonds has had to cancel its Letšeng large tender, owing to travel and other restrictions imposed by various governments, including in Belgium, where the tender would have been held from March 16 to 25.In its place, Gem has launched a “flexible direct sales process” for these large and high-quality diamonds that had seen significant demand during the tender v...Read More
(IDEX Online) - AGS Laboratories has suspended all diamond grading for a month, because of coronavirus.The facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, has been forced to close in a bid by the state governor to halt the spread of Covid-19.All "non-essential businesses" are included in the closure order, which became effective yesterday and which will remain in place for at least a month.The lab, founded in 1996...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa, Petra Diamonds and Lucara Diamond Corp. are among the companies putting special procedures in place in preparation for a possible coronavirus outbreak, while still continuing operations at their mines.Alrosa, which has not had any cases of infection among workers, is requiring all employees returning from abroad to adhere to a two-week home quarantine, with a commitment to...Read More
RAPAPORT... Indian banks have agreed to offer special concessions to diamond exporters to help them deal with late payments resulting from the coronavirus outbreak.Companies will have extra months to repay loans they take to fund overseas shipments, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said in a note to members on March 13.Exporters' ability to recover payments from custom...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 64-carat, high-quality stone from its Mothae mine in Lesotho, it said Wednesday.The D-color, type IIa diamond is the 12th over 50 carats the miner has unearthed since reaching commercial production in January 2019. The deposit has also yielded three stones over 100 carats, including a 220- and a 127-carat diamond, which were discovered in Nov...Read More
(IDEX Online)- De Beers plans to go ahead with its third sight next month, despite a travel ban to Botswana, where the sales are held.Flights from 18 high-risk countries - including China, India and Belgium - have been banned in a move aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus.Many of the 80 sight holders will struggle to attend and may send representatives or buy blind at the sight, which...Read More
RAPAPORT... The American Gem Society (AGS) has canceled its Conclave amid gathering restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic."The decision was made in light of a national state of emergency that was declared on Friday of last week and amidst growing concerns of the...outbreak," the organization said Monday.While AGS will not reschedule the event, which was slated to take place in Denver,...Read More
Dual-listed Botswana Diamonds has started a bulk sampling campaign at its Marsfontein project, in South Africa, where kimberlite was previously identified as being of “high interest”.Treatment will be undertaken at a nearby diamond processing facility using two-stage crushing, screening, pans, X-ray and grease recovery processes.AdvertisementThe recently declared National State of Disa...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers' upcoming sight in Botswana will still take place despite the country's ban on arrivals from the US, China, India and Belgium, the miner has confirmed."While this is an extraordinary situation and COVID-19 has had an impact, our customers continue to express some demand for rough diamonds and have communicated their desire for the sight to proceed," a spokesperson for De...Read More
RAPAPORT... Pandora has rescinded its revenue guidance for 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic has hit sales and forced it to shut stores temporarily, it said Monday.In February, the company had forecast revenue would fall between 3% and 6% for the year."Pandora's financial guidance announced on February 4, 2020, excluded any impact from COVID-19," the company noted. "As a consequence of the global...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was quiet on Thursday March 19, despite a sharp decrease in prices the day before, sources have told Fastmarkets.On March 18, a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Canadian cargo, comprising 18,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (90:10), 20,000 tonnes of shredded and 12,000 tonnes of plate and structural (P&S) scrap, at an average price of $255 per tonne cfr.Marke...Read More
Prices for bulk ferrous scrap cargoes imported into Bangladesh have fallen over the past week amid a deterioration in international scrap prices and heightened disruption created by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 19.Bangladesh has provided a rare bright spot for bulk scrap sellers over recent weeks, with a strong local steel market and high co...Read More
RAPAPORT... The impact of the coronavirus on US retail supply chains may be larger than previously expected, as disruptions to transportation are likely to affect imports in March and April, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.The NRF was already predicting a sharp drop in imports of goods from mainland China due to factory shutdowns and travel restrictions. However, as the virus spreads, sh...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices showed little movement on Thursday March 19 while concerns about the global economic outlook persisted, although one trade involving a premium mid-vol cargo pushed the premium hard coking coal cfr China index up.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $163.15 per tonne, down $0.76 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $168.05 per t...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped on Thursday March 19, though uncertainty about supply persisted and the futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange regained some losses made earlier in the morning. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $91.36 per tonne, down $0.35 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $92.37 per tonne, down $0.83 per tone58% Fe fines high-grade pr...Read More
Fastmarkets announces the launch of import ferrous scrap prices for the markets of Bangladesh and South Korea.These new price assessments, and accompanying written content, will significantly boost Fastmarkets' coverage of the Asia ferrous scrap complex, providing subscribers with accurate pricing data together with detailed and insightful market commentary.After undertaking an extensive consultat...Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe financing is comprised of unsecured convertible debentures, with the funds to be used to advance ongoing litigation associated with permits for the NorthMet project in Minnesota, USA, as well as to continue engineering and optimisation efforts for the project."These funds provide the financial framework to continue to move the...Read More
While risk-off dominates and even though governments are prepared to throw money at the financial system and into economies and households, the likelihood is that more factories will close, household spending will fall, as will demand for raw materials, but there may be some dead cat bounces along the way.Partial and full lockdowns will hopefully mean the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is brought u...Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resources"This is one of the lowest prices for a decade and unfortunately this will last as long as the coronavirus issue exists.Read More
Physical trading for copper in China has ground to a halt after the tumbling copper price on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) startled the market, Fastmarkets heard.Copper, a bellwether for the global economy, lost its cool following the rout across global financial markets amid the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) fallout. SHFE copper rapidly fell to the daily down limit after it opened on Thursday Ma...Read More