Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood – Page 11

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

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.

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

October 24, 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.

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)

October 24, 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.

Russia’s Colonial Legacy in the Sakha Heartland – by Kara K. Hodgson (The Arctic Institute – November 15, 2022)

October 17, 2023

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Russia is often sidelined in discussions of colonialism in the Arctic, most often due to a lack of linguistic and/or physical access. However, Russia also has a colonial legacy, with many parallels to colonialism in other Arctic contexts, for which it deserves to be included in the conversation. Since the sixteenth century, the Russian state has been trying to secure a(n ethnically) Russian presence across the Eurasian landmass.

The first period of expansion occurred during the Russian Empire1) as an imperialist colonialist endeavor.2) The second period occurred during the Soviet era. The central leadership began a new wave of colonialism within the borders of the USSR, in the form of internal colonization.

Soviet building projects used 116 nuclear blasts Long-term effects weren’t studied, Russians now say – by Kathy Lally (Baltimore Sun – November 2, 1994)

October 17, 2023

https://www.baltimoresun.com/

PLEASE NOTE – This article was published in 1994. However, it is ASTONISHING that nuclear bombs were used in mining and infrastructure projects and I had to post.

MOSCOW — The Soviet Union, consumed by a mania for gigantic development, routinely used nuclear blasts in construction and mining projects from 1965 to 1988, never bothering to calculate the cost to people or environment. “They never studied the long-term effects,” said Boris N. Golubov, a Russian scientist leading an inquiry into the explosions. “And we’re only starting to feel them now.”

And in its haste to develop its vast resources at all costs, Dr. Golubov said, the Soviet Union set off 116 nuclear explosions for technical purposes. The most modest of them was equivalent to the explosion at Hiroshima. A large number were five to 10 times more powerful, and one was 165 times more powerful.

US lab-grown diamond producer files for bankruptcy – by Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – October 12, 2023)

October 13, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

Sector suffers first big casualty from glut of man-made gemstones

WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the second-largest US producer of man-made diamonds, has filed for bankruptcy, becoming the sector’s first big casualty of a burgeoning glut of fabricated gemstones.

The Washington-based company, which filed for Chapter 7 protection on Wednesday in a Delaware bankruptcy court, said it had total liabilities of $44mn with assets totalling $3mn and between 100 and 199 creditors.

Bumpy Ride Ahead Amid Synthetic-Diamond Shake-Up – by Avi Krawitz (Rapaport.com – October 2, 2023)

October 3, 2023

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The diamond industry will remain under pressure as geopolitics and the rising popularity of lab-grown cause a fundamental restructuring of the market, cautioned Rapaport Group Chairman Martin Rapaport. “We’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride over the next year or so,” Rapaport said in a webinar last week. “There will be unprecedented change as the real-diamond business repositions itself in the face of stiff competition from synthetics.”

The diamond industry has seen significant drops in 2023. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI™) for 1-carat polished diamonds fell 20% from the beginning of the year to October 2, after the rate of decline accelerated in recent months.

Why G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds are a body blow for Surat industry – by Jumana Shah (India Today – September 27, 2023)

September 27, 2023

https://www.indiatoday.in/

Gems and jewellery industry apex body GJEPC’s decision to suspend transactions with Russian state miner Alrosa is expected to further squeeze the job market in hub Surat, which has already witnessed some 28 deaths by suicides recently

The G7, a grouping of some of the world’s most developed economies (US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, UK and Japan), is on the verge of mandating certificates for the sale of polished diamonds to ensure that diamonds mined by Russian state mining company Alrosa do not reach the market. This is to ensure that all external funding to Russia’s war on Ukraine is effectively cut off.

While the countries, particularly the US, had declared sanctions on Alrosa immediately after the war commenced in February 2022, it was recently claimed that Surat-based firms continued to buy roughs (rough unpolished mined diamonds) from the company.

Alrosa Halts Sales as Diamond Glut Persists – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport.com – September 21, 2023)

September 21, 2023

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Alrosa has canceled its next two sales and urged caution from buyers and suppliers amid a steep downturn in the diamond market. The Russian miner informed India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) of the decision in the past few days, citing low demand. The move follows the GJEPC’s recent call for rough producers to act responsibly.

“Alrosa has decided to temporarily halt the allocation of rough diamonds in September and October 2023,” the company said in a note to the GJEPC, seen by Rapaport News. “We believe that this approach is going to have a stabilizing impact by strengthening the market’s supply-and-demand balance. This will aid the prevention of overstocking, especially with manufacturers closed for Diwali.”

Poland proposes ban on Russian diamonds, LPG in new sanctions package – by Jan Strupczewski (Reuters – September 18, 2023)

September 21, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Poland proposed on Monday that new European Union sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine should include a ban on Russian diamonds and Liquid Petroleum Gas and called for aligning sanctions against Belarus with those against Moscow.

In a proposal seen by Reuters, Poland is calling for banning imports of Russian diamonds, the sales of which brought the Russian budget $4.5 billion in 2021, it said, and putting individual sanctions on the Russian Alrosa (ALRS.MM) diamond company.

G7 to launch Russian diamond ban in bid to curb revenues – by Julia Payne and Polina Devitt (Reuters – September 15, 2023)

September 18, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/markets/

BRUSSELS/LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The Group of Seven (G7) countries is expected to announce an import ban on Russian diamonds in the next 2-3 weeks, Belgian officials told reporters on Friday, in a bid to tighten a squeeze on Russia’s capacity to finance the war in Ukraine.

The plan could transform the global diamond supply chain, but implementation will depend heavily on India, whose diamond industry employs millions of people who cut and polish 90% of the world’s diamonds.

Jewelry for Rap Gods (and Mortals Alike) – by Christopher Barnard (New York Times – February 5, 2023)

September 18, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/

The jewelry designer Alex Moss specializes in creating custom pieces for clients like Drake and Jack Harlow. This month, he releases a collection available to the masses.

Nine floors above the storefronts of New York’s diamond district, in a corner suite of the World Diamond Tower, a lariat necklace with diamonds the size of molars sat inside a silver briefcase. The necklace was fresh from a cleaning — an ultrasonic water bath, followed by a steam — and visiting the office of the jewelry designer Alex Moss in late January en route to its owner: the rapper and singer Drake.

“Jewelry is like a car, it needs to be maintained,” Mr. Moss, 30, said. The piece, created by Mr. Moss, took 14 months to make. A video shared on Instagram by the designer said that its 42 diamonds represented the number of times that Drake had considered proposing marriage. When asked how much the necklace cost, Mr. Moss declined to answer, citing the security of its owner.

De Beers Ends Lab-Grown Engagement Diamonds Foray as Prices Drop – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – September 13, 2023)

September 13, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — De Beers decided to call time on offering lab-grown diamonds for engagement rings even as the man-made alternatives continue to cannibalize demand in one of the company’s most important markets.

After vowing for years that it wouldn’t sell stones created in laboratories, in 2018 De Beers reversed that position and only this year started testing sales of the diamonds in the crucial engagement-ring sector. The diamond industry leader said Wednesday that the trial showed that it wasn’t a sustainable market.

The Story of the King of Diamonds – by Melanie Abrams (New York Times – September 7, 2023)

September 11, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/

Harry Winston’s nickname is just one element in a new biography by one of his sons.

“Talk to me, Harry Winston. Tell me all about it,” Marilyn Monroe purred in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” the song in the 1953 movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” that named one of New York’s pre-eminent jewelers.

Now his son Ronald is telling all about it, too, in a new book describing his father’s rise in the jewelry business and the lengthy legal battle over the company with his brother, Bruce, that followed his father’s death in 1978. (The company has been owned by the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch Group since 2013.)

Are people in the UAE taking a shine to lab-grown diamonds? – by Emma Pearson (National News – September 7, 2023)

September 11, 2023

https://www.thenationalnews.com/

As synthetic stones rise in popularity, The National asks traders and jewellers if they truly are a cut above the real thing

Diamonds might be for ever, yet their origins are evolving. This week, Bloomberg reported the prices of some rough stones are in free fall as Americans opt for jewellery made using lab-grown diamonds, which are lower in cost.

As a result, even established jewellery houses have had to rethink costs and supply. Case in point: in the first half of the year, De Beers’s profits dropped 60 per cent to $347 million, with average prices for its “real” diamonds falling from $213 per carat to $163.