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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

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

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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.

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

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.

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

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

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Why G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds are a body blow for Surat industry – by Jumana Shah (India Today – 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.

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Alrosa Halts Sales as Diamond Glut Persists – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport.com – 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.”

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

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

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

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De Beers Ends Lab-Grown Engagement Diamonds Foray as Prices Drop – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – 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.

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

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

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Lab-Grown Gems Are Crashing Prices for One Key Type of Diamond – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – September 3, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — One of the world’s most popular types of rough diamonds has plunged into a pricing free fall, as a growing number of Americans choose engagement rings made from lab-grown stones instead.

Diamond demand across the board has weakened after the pandemic, as consumers splash out again on travel and experiences, while economic headwinds eat into luxury spending. However, the kinds of stones that go into the cheaper one- or two-carat solitaire bridal rings popular in the US have experienced far sharper price drops than the rest of the market.

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How More Sanctions on Russian Diamonds Could Affect the Global Market – by Elizabeth Paton (New York Times – August 31, 2023)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The Group of 7 and the European Union are expected to issue new rules in an effort to slow the flow of revenue into the Kremlin’s war chest.

Eighteen months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, sending shock waves around the world — and through the global diamond market. Russia is the world’s biggest diamond exporter by volume, with a state-owned company, Alrosa, mining almost one third of all diamonds produced in 2021.

To prevent funds from flowing into the Kremlin war chest, the United States — the world’s largest market for finished diamonds — took action last spring when President Biden banned the import of rough diamonds from Russia and the U.S. Treasury Department placed sanctions on Alrosa.

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