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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

THE HISTORY, HERITAGE AND HYPE BEHIND GOLCONDA DIAMONDS – by Jack Ogden (The Gemmological Association of Great Britain – August 18, 2023)

https://gem-a.com/gem-hub/around-the-world/

Renowned jewellery historian and published author, Jack Ogden FGA, traces the history of Indian diamonds and questions the sustained marketing hype around the famous Golconda mines.

Today India is the largest centre for diamond cutting, handling some 90 percent of the world’s diamonds. But most who cut, sell or buy these diamonds, in the cutting centre of Surat or at the vast diamond exchange in Mumbai, are probably unaware that in the past the country was also the world’s major source of diamonds.

Exceptions are the dealers in larger stones, ones they hope a laboratory report might link to the famous Golconda mines in India, a link that allows a price premium.This article will look at India’s remarkable diamond history and ponder whether associating a diamond on the market with ‘Golconda’ is really just marketing hype.

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Renowned Diamond Cutter Gabriel ‘Gabi’ Tolkowsky Dies – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport.com – May 30, 2023)

 

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Sir Gabriel “Gabi” Tolkowsky, one of the world’s most revered diamond cutters, has died at 84, friends and family wrote on social media on Monday. Born in Tel Aviv in 1939, Tolkowsky was from a family steeped in the diamond industry. He learned the trade from father, Jean, who had a diamond-polishing factory in Israel — an education that would set him up for a career manufacturing some of the world’s most famous diamonds.

“Every day after work, [my father] would come home from his workshop with people from all over the world who had come to learn about diamond polishing and sit in the one big living-cum-bedroom-cum-dining room we had,” Tolkowsky said in a 2008 interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times.

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Is Botswana Getting a Raw Deal From De Beers Diamonds? – by John Eligon (New York Times – June 29, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Botswana, in southern Africa, has partnered with the London-based diamond giant De Beers for decades. Many in the country are pushing to get a better deal from the industry.

Botswana produces more of the world’s diamonds than any country but Russia. But Botswana, a small landlocked nation in southern Africa, keeps only 25 percent of the rough stones extracted in its agreement with De Beers, an international diamond conglomerate. De Beers takes 75 percent.

That disparity has been at the heart of an argument by the president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, that his country is getting a raw deal from De Beers, a London-based company. Mr. Masisi has said that if Botswana does not get more, it might walk away from the half-century-old partnership when the current agreement expires on Friday.

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That diamond ring? It may have helped pay for Russia’s war – by Daniil Ukhorskiy (Kyiv Independent – October 12, 2023)

https://kyivindependent.com/

Editor’s note: This story uses sources who are speaking on condition of anonymity since revealing their identities would heavily damage their careers and expose them to legal and personal risks in the diamond industry. Their identities are known to the Kyiv Independent.

Soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, luxury brands like Tiffany and Cartier announced they had stopped buying Russian diamonds. An investigation by the Kyiv Independent has found evidence to the contrary. A year and a half into the all-out war, export data shows Russia keeps selling its diamonds to the West. Now, through intermediaries, primarily Dubai.

Thanks to weak American sanctions and the absence of any in the European Union, Alrosa, the leading Russian diamond producer partly owned by the state, keeps profiting from diamond sales. The company may be using some of its profit to fund the Russian military directly. Alrosa has not responded to a request for comment.

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HOLY COW! HISTORY: How Harry Sent the Hope Diamond – by J. Mark Powell (Inside Sources – September 6, 2022)

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Think quick! You’re a jeweler. You’ve got a gemstone. And an organization is waiting for it some 225 miles away. What do you do? A merchant once pondered that very question. But it wasn’t just any jeweler shipping any precious stone to any old group.

It involved America’s foremost jeweler at the time, the most famous gem in the world, and America’s most celebrated museum. And how he wound up sending it will amaze you.To fully appreciate this story, you must first understand the players involved.

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EU to move ahead with Russian diamond ban next week – by Henry Foy (Financial Times – November 8, 2023)

https://www.ft.com/

Foreign policy chief says agreement at G7 level cleared hurdles set by Belgium and other countries

The EU is set to move ahead with a long-stalled ban on Russian diamonds next week after securing sufficient backing from the G7 group of developed nations, according to the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

Diamonds are one of the few major Russian exports still untouched by EU sanctions imposed in response to President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, due to extensive wrangling over how any embargo would work effectively.

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Blue diamond rakes in nearly $44m at Geneva auction (Gulf News – November 8, 2023)

https://gulfnews.com/

The Bleu Royal is largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue gem ever to appear for sale

Geneva: An exceptionally rare blue diamond went under the hammer in Geneva Tuesday, selling for more than $40 million, making it one of the most expensive diamonds ever sold at auction, Christie’s said. Weighing 17.61 carats, the Bleu Royal is the largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue gem ever to appear for sale in auction history.

It is the star lot in a series of luxury sales in Geneva this month, which also feature items from movie history including pearls worn by Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando’s self-engraved watch. The Bleu Royal had been expected to fetch between $35 million and $50 million in Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction.

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Persevering with economic development objectives key to success – by Rick Garrick (Anishinabek News – November 1, 2023)

https://anishinabeknews.ca/

SAULT STE. MARIE — Five Nations Energy Inc. CEO Pat Chilton stressed the importance of persevering with economic development objectives on the second day of the inaugural annual Anishinabek Nation Economic Development Opportunities Forum 2023.

Chilton highlighted how the three James Bay First Nations of Fort Albany, Kashechewan, and Attawapiskat persevered with their concept of building a transmission line on the James Bay coast to get rid of diesel-operated generators in the communities even though the federal and provincial governments and Ontario Hydro said it was not possible during his keynote at the Forum, which was held by the Anishinabek Nation Economic Development Department from Oct. 24-26 at the Quattro Hotel and Conference Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.

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In diamond centre Antwerp, Russian gems are already shunned – by Julia Payne (Reuters – November 3, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

ANTWERP, Belgium, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Only a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Antwerp-based diamond dealer Thierry Tugendhaft started receiving calls from big jewellers in Paris asking him to stop supplying them with Russian stones.

He was not the only one. Other diamond firms in Antwerp, the world’s biggest centre of trade in rough diamonds and cutting of the biggest gems, were asked to avoid Russian stones. No easy task when Russia supplies about one third of global demand.

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Russia Attacks West for ‘Distorting’ Kimberley Process – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport News – November 1, 2023)

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The Russian government has accused Western nations of trying to undermine the Kimberley Process (KP). Group of Seven (G7) countries and the European Union have attempted to politicize the global diamond watchdog and introduce their own “biased” parallel regulatory program, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev wrote Sunday in an open letter to the KP chairman.

The claims come ahead of next week’s KP plenary meeting in Zimbabwe and reflect controversy over the attempts by the G7 — which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the EU — to impose a bloc-wide ban on Russian diamonds.

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How Palanpuri Jains captured global diamond trade (Economic Times – April 4, 2023)

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

In Belgium’s Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world, a diamond trader is most likely to be from one particular religion and one particular village in India. The Jain community is known for its excellence in business and trade not only in India but in many other countries too, most popularly in Belgium where they trade in diamonds.

In little more than half a century, a small Jain community, the Palanpuri Jains, so called because they come from Palanpur town in Banaskantha district of Gujarat, has got a hold on diamond trade in Antwerp. On Mahavir Jayanti today, here’s the story of a community which is known to have attained business excellence due to their ascetic religion that puts great emphasis on ethical behaviour.

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EU confirms plans for Russia-diamonds ban – by Andrew Rettman (EU Observer – October 27, 2023)

https://euobserver.com/

The EU has confirmed it’s going to strike Russia’s diamond industry in upcoming sanctions, spelling trouble for mining giant Alrosa and dozens of other companies.

“We are in the process of preparing the 12th round [of sanctions] … in particular how to cut the revenues Russia draws from exports of diamonds to Europe and its partners,” said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Friday (29 October).

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Stornoway Diamonds files for bankruptcy for second time, stops operations at Quebec site – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – October 27, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Stornoway Diamonds (Canada) Inc. is filing for bankruptcy protection for the second time in four years as the gem miner struggles to deal with volatile pricing on global markets. Its future now looks murky as a Quebec government spokesman said the province will put no more public money into the venture.

The privately held company said Friday it is immediately suspending operations at its Renard site in Northern Quebec while it plots a path forward. About 75 people out of a work force of 500 will perform tasks such as maintaining equipment and other assets toward an eventual return of operations, Stornoway said.

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Heartache, Worry and Helping Hands: Jewelry Industry Weighs In on Israel-Hamas War – by Jennifer Heebner (Rapaport.com – October 22, 2023)

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When terrorist organization Hamas attacked residents of Israel’s Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, it upended the lives of many, including in the jewelry world. There are deep roots connecting Israel and the international jewelry community, not least because Israel is a major diamond-cutting center.

Be’eri was one of multiple Jewish communities on the Gaza border where Hamas gunmen slaughtered and kidnapped innocents and set houses on fire — vicious moves that reached far beyond the boundaries of southern Israel.

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People, housing, land: N.W.T. business leaders call for cascade of change from next gov’t – by Sidney Cohen (CBC News Canada North – October 21, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

‘Fundamentally, if you want to grow the economy, you need to grow your population.’

The outlook was rather grim. “The recovery from the pandemic returns the economy to its pre-pandemic path of slow decline,” read this year’s budget documents for the Northwest Territories.

The budget goes on to list a raft of challenges: inflation, high interest rates, a shortage of workers, insufficient economic diversification, and the fast-approaching closure of the territory’s three diamond mines. This summer’s devastating wildfires and evacuations haven’t helped the situation.

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