Diamond trading remains at historic lows due to reduced demand and continued lockdown in important US market. Service providers resume operations. GIA opens five global labs. Israel Diamond Exchange to unlock trading floor on May 24. Focus shifting to marketing strategies to stimulate recovery, with emphasis on digital channels. Diamonds as symbol of values and emotional connection to be central t...Read More

RAPAPORT... Sotheby's will hold its Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction in Geneva in June, its first live sale since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.The auction will be held in two parts, Sotheby's told Rapaport News Wednesday. The first portion, an online sale, will run from June 16 to 24, and will include jewelry from the 19th century through the present day, from jewelers suc...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) has chosen Ann Arnold, chief strategy officer for Buyers Intelligence Group (BIG), to head its board of directors.Arnold, who was appointed at the company's April 30 board meeting, has volunteered with the JBT for nearly 12 years, and has previously served as vice chairman. She will succeed outgoing chair Mike Kaplan, the JBT said Wednesday.An ind...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Indian government has allowed diamond businesses in Surat to reopen with limited staff numbers following concerns the shutdown was causing an exodus of workers.Companies can now employ 50% of workers in factories and 33% in offices, Surat Diamond Association (SDA) president Babubhai Kathiriya told members in a note Wednesday, seen by Rapaport News. Previously, only eight diamo...Read More

Total sales of watches and jewelry in the USA plunged in March, compared with same month last year, down by 27.2 per cent. It is an unprecedented fall, driven by unprecedented events. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were reflected to some extent in February's year-on-year figure, which saw a slowdown, but still some positive growth (up 3.4 per cent).The disastrous figure for March is the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A judge has ruled that the Rio Tinto subsidiary DDMI can temporarily withhold diamonds from its troubled joint venture partner Dominion. DDMI and Dominion have a 60/40 split ownership of the Diavik mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.But Dominion has been in creditor protection since April after closing its other mine, Ekati, also in Northwest Territories, because of C...Read More

Broad markets were weaker this morning, Thursday May 21, this after strong gains in recent days on high hopes that the recovery will gain momentum while economies move out of lockdowns and with ultra-loose monetary policy adding fuel. The danger is that some countries are relaxing lockdowns for economic reasons even though the Covid-19 virus is not under control, and that runs the risk of the viru...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe underground mine, which aims to extend the life of the centennial Chuquicamata copper deposit by 40 years, is reaching production rates of about 20,000 tonnes per day and the company has sunk someRead More

Cardinal heading down familiar gold roadSPONSOREDcardinal resources"Which is of course the way some shareholders would have liked to see us go," Mather said on a Red Cloud Securities webinar this week.Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resources"The index generally sees the annual lows in April but the unique circumstances resulting from COVID-19 have meant that April was instead the first signs of recovery," Marex Spectron's global head of analytics Dr Guy Wolf said.The index put the April average at 87.2, up from 86.7 in March and compared with 85 a year ago and 84.8 in...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 13 points in pre-opening trade.Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of economic news at 8:30 AM EDT Consensus for the May Philly Fed Index was a drop to - 40.0 versus -56.6 in April. Actual was a drop to -43.1. Consensus for Weekly Jobless Claims was 2.400 million versus a revised 2.687 million las...Read More

Seven ways the resources sector can survive the COVID-19 crisisSPONSOREDproudfootCardinal heading down familiar gold roadSPONSOREDcardinal resourcesSarama right in the middle of big exploration, corporate build-upSPONSOREDsarama resources Exore excels in Cote d'IvoireSPONSOREDexore resources"I believe that long-term mining economics should determine pricing.Read More

Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL) has struck a strategic partnership with Melkior Resources (TSXV: MKR), which is advancing its flagship Carscallen gold project in the Timmins gold camp of Ontario.The Toronto-based gold miner, whose high-grade mines in Canada and Australia produced 974,615 oz. of the precious metal last year, is investing $1 million in a non-brokered private placement for up...Read More

Phase one drilling at Rockcliff Metals' (CSE: RCLF) Freebeth property in central Manitoba has returned high-grade copper and zinc mineralization including 5.28% copper equivalent over 2 metres and 4% copper-equivalent over 5 metres.The drill program also pinpointed the historic Last Hurrah zone on the property, which is 3.5 km southeast of the past-producing Spruce Point copper-zinc mine, and with...Read More

With an initial US$493-million investment, Cypress Development's (TSXV: CYP) Clayton Valley lithium project could produce 27,400 tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) per year over a 40-year mine life, according to a prefeasibility study (PFS) released this week.At an 8% discount rate, the project has an after-tax net present value of US$1.1 billion, an internal rate of return of 25.8%, and a...Read More

Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC) has discovered two new palladium-platinum zones and extended nickel mineralization at its wholly owned Crawford nickel-cobalt project located in the Timmins-Cochrane mining camp, 40 km north of Timmins, Ontario.Discovery holes drilled in the East zone at the property have doubled the strike length of the nickel mineralization, while partial assays from a third hol...Read More

Colombia-focused Caldas Gold (TSXV: CGC) is casting its eyes on Canada with plans to acquire the Juby gold project, 11 km southeast of the Timmins gold camp in Ontario in the southern part of the Abitibi greenstone belt.The company's flagship asset is its Marmato gold project in Colombia's Middle Cauca gold district, 80 km south of Medellin. Caldas is a spin-off of Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: GCM; US...Read More

U.S. domestic production of uranium concentrate plunged 89% to 174,000 lb. U3O8 last year, according to the latest annual report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).This also represents a steep decline compared to the 4.89 million lb. the U.S. produced five years earlier.The production of uranium concentrate is the first step in the nation's nuclear fuel production proce...Read More

Australia's Danakali (LSE: DNK) is in the final stages of completing the second phase of development of its world-class Colluli potash project in Eritrea, Africa.The front-end engineering design (FEED), expected to be finished in June, will take the company a step closer to the construction phase and then onto production in 2022, Danakali said.The three key objectives set for the second phase of d...Read More

Seven ways the resources sector can survive the COVID-19 crisisSPONSOREDproudfootCardinal heading down familiar gold roadSPONSOREDcardinal resourcesSarama right in the middle of big exploration, corporate build-upSPONSOREDsarama resources Exore excels in Cote d'IvoireSPONSOREDexore resourcesExecutive producer Michael Moore and his writer, director, editor and narrator Jeff Gibbs have confounde...Read More