CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – Diamond mining and marketing company De Beers is to collaborate with Angola on opportunities to increase diamond production, support alluvial mining sector and enhance social development for the benefit of Angola’s citizens.
De Beers on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Angola’s National Mineral Resource Agency, Angola’s State-owned Endiama diamond company, and Angola’s State-owned Sodiam diamond trading company, to support these objectives.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
After a few months or years of working rotating shifts at the Diavik Diamond Mine, flying to the site can become routine.
Employees file into a twin-propeller plane, exchange small talk with the crew and then tend to put their earbuds in and try to catch some shut-eye before their shifts, says Sean Farmer, a pilot who until recently worked with Northwestern Air Lease Ltd. Mr. Farmer flew all over the North, including twice-monthly flights between Fort Smith, NWT, and the Diavik mine, about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A plane carrying workers to a Rio Tinto diamond mine in the Northwest Territories has crashed just above the border with Alberta, killing multiple passengers.
A spokesman for the multinational company did not say how many miners have died in the Tuesday morning crash but confirmed late that evening “a number of our people” were on a flight to the Diavik mine when it came down near the town of Fort Smith, where local authorities prepared the hospital to receive multiple wounded patients.
Diamonds have always been a crucial source of income for Russia, the world’s largest producer. Following two years of war, the EU has finally imposed sanctions on Russian diamonds and related businesses. The European Union has recently introduced the twelfth round of sanctions against Russia in response to its full-scale aggression towards Ukraine.
The sanctions were approved in December and came into effect at the beginning of this year. As part of this strategy, non-industrial diamonds mainly used to make jewelry and mined and processed in Russia cannot be imported into the EU. The ban applies to Alrosa, the leading Russian diamond producer and exporter. The Director of Alrosa, Pavel Marinychev, has been blacklisted and banned from entering EU countries.
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Precious stone mines saw some shuffling in Canada’s North with Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd.’s acquisition of the Ekati diamond mine.
Already a 40% partner with North Arrow Minerals Inc. at the Naujaat diamond project in Nunavut, Burgundy closed its buyout of Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Ltd. on July 4, which gave the Australian diamond company full ownership of the world-class Ekati Mine and significantly elevating its efforts to deliver high-end cut and polished diamonds mined in Canada’s Arctic to global markets.
(Bloomberg) — De Beers made big cuts to its diamond prices as the world’s top producer tries to revive gem sales after the market ground to a halt last year.
The industry almost came to a complete standstill in the second half of 2023 as the two biggest miners all but stopped supplies in a desperate attempt to stem a collapse in prices. While those efforts helped the market to pick up a bit, it’s unclear how much appetite trade buyers currently have.
PJSC Alrosa, which is owned by the Russian state, accounts for over 90% of all Russian diamond production, representing a highly valuable revenue stream for the Kremlin.
The EU said Wednesday that Alrosa and its CEO Marinychev had been added to the list of sanctioned persons and entities for “actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” “The company constitutes an important part of an economic sector that is providing substantial revenue to the government of the Russian Federation,” it added.
Italian gemological lab Gem-Tech has warned the trade that a number of lab-grown diamonds circulating in the country are being sold as natural.
Three stones were submitted to the lab accompanied by certificates from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stating they were natural, Gem-Tech said last week. Gem-Tech weighed the stones and found them to be nearly identical to those recorded on the GIA certificates.
The country is at a pivotal point in its diamond journey, with the new deal between De Beers and the government seen as a catalyst for growth.
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi paused for a moment after stepping up to the podium to address the annual Natural Diamond Summit in Gaborone.
As he looked through the marquee venue, aptly known as the Diamond Dome, with its intentionally earthy décor, Masisi appeared measured. The speech he was about to give was his first major address to a broader De Beers-organized audience since the government announced its landmark deal with the company on June 30.
(Bloomberg) — The world’s two biggest diamond miners are selling stones again after the industry all but halted supplies in a desperate attempt to stop a collapse in prices.
This year’s rout that was driven by swelling inventories forced the sector to take radical steps to support the market. Russia’s Alrosa PJSC in September halted all sales for two months, and was followed by buyers in India — the dominant cutting and trading center — voluntarily banning imports. De Beers allowed its customers to refuse all gems they’re contracted to buy.
Russian diamonds are one of the last resources not sanctioned by the G7, meaning the profits from selling them can go into the Kremlin’s war chest.
G7 leaders on Wednesday agreed to impose a direct import ban on Russian diamonds as of January, while introducing a tracing system for diamonds during next year.
Russian diamonds are one of the last resources not sanctioned by the G7, meaning the profits from selling them can go into the Kremlin’s war chest.
Premier and cabinet need to make clear N.W.T. is open for other kinds of mining and will ease investors’ way
Although it wasn’t much noticed in the rest of Canada, the Northwest Territories had an election last month. Worn down by a series of crises, people voted for change: about half of the MLAs-elect are new. They picked a hard time to get into government.
Compared to what’s coming next, COVID-19 and record-breaking wildfires might not look so bad. The territory’s diamond mining industry, which represents over a quarter of its GDP, is coming to its natural end. And as things stand there is no plan to replace it.
Economic headwinds, Chinese caution and the threat of lab-grown are the trade’s current concerns. But the recurring difficulties that existed before Covid-19 have not gone away.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” wrote French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849. The famous proverb is understood to mean no matter how tumultuous a situation is, some underlying patterns remain consistent.
The diamond industry must keep this in mind as it navigates the current market slump. Can the trade learn from the past and bring about a sustainable improvement? While US economic weakness, rising competition from lab-grown diamonds and the slowdown in China sparked the downturn, market inefficiencies over the past 15 years have also contributed.
https://www.nnsl.com/
With approximately 165 million carats of diamonds still underground at the former Ekati diamond mine, its new owner, Burgundy Diamonds, is looking to extend the mine’s life by implementing a never-before tried method of kimberlite extraction.
“Not all of those (carats) will be recoverable. But even if we did get a big chunk of those carats, it potentially could extend the life of the asset for many, many years to come,” said Kim Truter, CEO of Burgundy Diamond Mines.
Several traceability systems have been introduced in the last six months, spurred by sanctions against Russian-mined stones.
Tracing the path of a diamond from the mine where it originated through the global supply chain is not as straightforward as it might seem — especially for consumers who make an effort to know the source of their purchases, from coffee beans to clothing.
The reasons include a longstanding industry practice of aggregating rough diamonds from different mines, the number of intermediaries involved in transforming a raw stone into a cut and polished gem, and the fragmented and global nature of the trade itself.
