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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

Dominion Diamond accepts sweetened $1.2-billion bid – by Josh O’Kane (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Dominion Diamond Corp., the world’s third-largest producer of rough diamonds by value, announced Monday that it would be acquired by The Washington Cos. for $1.2-billion (U.S.), four months after a previous unsolicited $1.1-billion offer from the privately held American company prompted Dominion to put itself up for sale.

If given shareholder and regulatory approvals, the deal would see Washington buy up Dominion’s shares for $14.25 a piece – a 44-per-cent premium to the $9.92 share price on March 17 of this year, versus its original $13.50-per-share offer.

In early-afternoon trading, Dominion’s New York-listed shares were up 4.4 per cent, at $14.07. Toronto-listed shares were up 5.4 per cent.

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Mining Giant Hunts for Diamonds in the Canadian Forest – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – July 18, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Rio Tinto Group’s pursuit of new diamond output to tap rising demand in Asia is focusing on an unheralded exploration project in the Canadian forest.

The world’s second-biggest miner on Tuesday added the Fort a la Corne joint venture, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, to its published list of advanced projects after striking an agreement last month to take as much as a 60 percent stake.

The venture’s Star-Orion South project holds an estimated diamond resource of 55.4 million carats and has potential development costs of about C$2.5 billion ($2 billion), according to 2015 filings by developer, Saskatoon-based Shore Gold Inc.

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Top 10 Canadian-based diamond companies – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – July 13, 2017)

http://www.northernminer.com/

Canada is the fifth-largest diamond producer in the world, according to the Mining Association of Canada. Last year two new diamond mines came into production: Gahcho Kué in the Northwest Territories and Renard in Quebec. Here are the top 10 Canadian-headquartered diamond companies by market capitalization, as of early July.

1. DOMINION DIAMOND: Market Capitalization of $1.01 billion

Dominion Diamond (TSX: DDC; NYSE: DDC) is Canada’s largest diamond producer and the world’s third-largest diamond miner after De Beers and Alrosa. Dominion operates the Ekati mine, in which it owns a controlling interest, and owns 40% of the Diavik mine. Both mines are about 300 km from Yellowknife and 200 km south of the Arctic Circle in the Lac de Gras region of the Northwest Territories. Ekati officially began production in October 1998 and Diavik in January 2003.

Dominion also owns a 55% stake in the Lac de Gras joint-venture with North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR), which holds the remaining 45% interest. The joint-venture property adjoins the mineral leases that host the Diavik mine, 10 km to the north, and the Ekati mine, less than 40 km to the northwest. Dominion also has sorting and selling operations in Canada, Belgium and India.

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Canada’s Dominion Diamond accepts sweetened bid from U.S. billionaire – by Nicole Mordant and John Benny (Reuters Canada – July 17, 2017)

http://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Canada’s Dominion Diamond Corp on Monday agreed to a sweetened takeover offer of $1.2 billion from U.S. billionaire Dennis Washington that will take private the world’s third biggest diamond company by market value.

U.S.-listed shares of Dominion leapt 4 percent to $14.04, while its Toronto-listed shares rose nearly 5 percent, after Dominion said Washington Companies will acquire all of shares for $14.25 per share in cash.

The offer price is 5 percent higher than the Missoula, Montana-based company’s March 19 offer of $13.50 per share, which Dominion rejected as too low. Reuters reported on Friday that Dominion was in advanced and friendly talks with Washington on a sweetened cash takeover bid.

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Canadian miner’s tennis ball-sized ‘diamond in the rough’ proves too big to sell – by Susan Taylor (Reuters/Financial Post – July 17, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO — In the mysterious world of diamond mining, it turns out that some stones are too big to sell. Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp will have to cut its tennis ball-sized rough diamond to find a buyer, industry insiders say, following Sotheby’s failed auction for the world’s largest uncut stone last summer.

It’s not the ending that William Lamb wanted for his 1,109-carat stone, named ‘Lesedi La Rona’, or ‘Our Light’ in the national language of Botswana where it was mined. “It’s only the second stone recovered in the history of humanity over 1,000 carats. Why would you want to polish it?,” said Lucara’s chief executive.

“The stone in the rough form contains untold potential…As soon as you polish it into one solution, everything else is gone.” Lamb had gambled that ultra-rich collectors, who buy and sell precious art works for record-breaking sums at auction, would do the same with a diamond in the raw.

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Americans Buying Fewer Gems Puts the Hurt on Diamond Hub Antwerp – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – July 13, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

An ugly year for diamonds in the vital U.S. market is piling pressure on Europe’s historic center of the $80 billion global trade.

Diamond trading companies in the Belgian port city of Antwerp, which has been the industry’s trading capital for five centuries, were already feeling the pinch from a tightening credit bubble and thin margins. That’s now being compounded by falling demand from some of the industry’s biggest customers, notably retailers Signet Jewelers Ltd. and Tiffany & Co.

“Some of the major retailers have been exerting significant buyer power on diamond companies over the last few years,” said Anish Aggarwal, a partner at consultant Gemdax in Antwerp. “If a diamond company becomes too dependent on such retailers, they can get very exposed.”

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Diamond Hunting In The Arctic [Canada] – by Ludovic Hirtzmann (World Crunch – July 9, 2017)

https://www.worldcrunch.com/

GAHCHO KUÉ MINE — The old Jumbolino, a small, 1980s-model British plane, circles above the pack ice and its multitude of frozen lakes. Aboard, the 90 passengers, all of them miners, are waking up. “Welcome to Gahcho Kué,” the purser chants in a hoarse voice.

Gahcho Kué means “place of the big rabbits” in the indigenous Chipewyan language. But for outsiders, the name is synonymous with diamonds. The Gahcho Kué mine, owned by the De Beers company, is located in Canada’s Northwest Territories, about two-hour by plane from Edmonton, Alberta. It looks a bit like a lunar base, stranded on the tundra, endlessly flat and white.

After they land, the miners make their way onto a pair of school buses. The men are quiet. Later they arrive at the entrance of the camp, which is made of prefabricated huts arranged in parallel lines. A stern young man calls for silence.

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Guinean former fashion model digs into west African mining (AFP – July 5, 2017)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Leaving behind chic gowns and catwalks to stomp in the mud in heavy work boots, Guinean former fashion model Tiguidanke Camara has made herself west Africa’s first woman mine owner. In the small forest village of Guingouine, in the west of Ivory Coast, Camara runs a team of 10 geologists and labourers who are probing the soil for gold deposits.

She readily wades into a mucky pond to help take laboratory samples. “When I was a model, I showed off for the jewellers. They have licences in Africa to provide their precious stones,” says Camara amid a swarm of gnats, still youthful and trim in her 40s.

She does not recall any macho male resistance to her rise in an industry almost devoid of women, though bemused men have been prompted on occasion to ask whose assistant she might be. “When it got too much one day, I had to produce my CEO’s ID badge!” she protests mildly.

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A CANADIAN DIAMOND PLAY WITH DISCOVERY, DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL – by James Kwantes (Resource Opportunities – June 2017)

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The November 1991 discovery of diamonds in the Northwest Territories by Chuck Fipke and Stu Blusson put Canada on the global diamond map. It also triggered one of the largest staking rushes in the world, as hundreds of companies hurried north to find treasure.

A few years later, many had retreated to warmer climes. One company that remained in the hunt was Gren Thomas’s Aber Resources, with a large land package staked by Thomas and partners at Lac de Gras near the Fipke find. In the spring of 1994, an Aber exploration crew led by Thomas’s geologist daughter, Eira Thomas, raced the spring melt to drill through the ice in search of kimberlite — the rock that sometimes hosts valuable diamonds.

It was a longshot. Since the Fipke find, the great Canadian diamond hunt had virtually ground to a halt — despite the millions of dollars spent in search of the glittery stones. But the drill core from that final spring hole had a two-carat diamond embedded in it. The Diavik discovery meant it was game on for Aber — and Canada’s nascent diamond industry.

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Commercial Operations at Gahcho Kue Highlights Canada as Global Producer – by Albert Robinson (Idexonline.com – June 29, 2017)

http://www.idexonline.com/

Mountain Province Diamonds’ report this week of the sale of 222,000 carats of rough stones for $21.1 million at $95 per carat at its fifth diamond sale of goods from Gahcho Kué has served to put the spotlight on the country’s major role as a diamond producer.

The manner in which Mountain Province secures certain diamonds for sale in competition with its partner, De Beers Canada, which owns 51 percent of the operation, is also of interest. The firms bid for the diamonds they are particularly interested in selling.

Mountain Province’s sales figures were increased due to the inclusion of a selection of the fancies and specials won by the company otherwise scheduled for inclusion in the sixth sale, which will occur in the second half of July. Excluding these high value diamonds, the average value realized per carat was $75.

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Diamonds are not forever: Indigenous communities grapple with end of the mining boom – by Michael West and Suzanne Smith (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 27, 2017)

http://www.abc.net.au/

As Australia’s resources boom wanes, several Indigenous communities that were once promised prosperity have been left grappling with a legacy of endemic poverty and questions about how mining money has been spent.

For the traditional land owners around the township of Kununurra in the remote north of Western Australia, diamonds have not been their best friends. The nearby Argyle diamond mine is three years from closure, and a royalties fund designed to ensure the community’s future is severely depleted.

Nestled among the scenic ranges of the Kimberley, Kununurra is blessed by an abundance of fresh water, the arable plains of the Ord River to the north-west and the Rio Tinto diamond mine to the south. The Indigenous Land Use Agreement that traditional owners negotiated with Argyle between 2003 and 2005 was held up as an example of best practice across the country.

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Future of diamond mining in the sea – by Magreth Nunuhe (The Southern Times – June 26, 2017)

https://southernafrican.news/

WALVIS BAY – Having the richest marine diamond deposits in the world, Namibia has set its sights on the ocean as the output of marine diamond production continue to enormously outstrip production of the precious stones on land.

Last year, marine diamond production yielded 1.17 million carats, while land operations generated 403,000 carats, contributing over billions of dollars in revenue. Namibian diamond mining takes place at around 120 to 140 metres below sea level.

In the next 15 years, it is estimated that diamond production on land in Namibia will run out and that 95 percent of diamond production will come from the sea. With approximations that the 3,700 miles squared concession area at sea on the south-west coast of Southern Africa will provide plenty of gemstones for the next 50 years, De Beers Group and Debmarine Namibia inaugurated the world’s most advanced exploration vessel, dubbed the mv SS Nujoma at the coastal town of Walvis Bay on 15 June 2017.

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De Beers Launches World’s Largest And Most Advanced Diamonds Exploration Ship – by Anthony DeMarco (Forbes Magazine – June 16, 2017)

https://www.forbes.com/

De Beers has officially launched the mv SS Nujoma, what the diamond mining giant calls the “world’s largest and most advanced diamond exploration and sampling vessel” to explore diamond deposits in the waters off the coast of Namibia.

The $157 million vessel is under the ownership of Debmarine Namibia, a 50/50 joint venture between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and De Beers Group. It is the only company in the world to mine diamonds offshore, having started in 2002. It produced around 1.2 million carats in 2016.

An inauguration ceremony was held Thursday in Walvis Bay, Namibia, attended by Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Founding President Dr Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma, who the vessel was named after, as well as Obeth Kandjoze, Namibia’s Minister of Mines and Energy.

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Analysis: A diamond of an opportunity for northern Manitoba – by Joseph Quesnel (Winnipeg Free Press – June 15, 2017)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Joseph Quesnel is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

In early March, the Manitoba Geological Survey and its industry partner, Lynx Consortium, made an important diamond discovery southeast of Thompson. While there is no guarantee the find will lead to a significant mining project, the province should move quickly to enhance the potential by involving industry partners, First Nations and municipalities in the region.

If this development works out, Manitoba would join Ontario, Quebec and the Northwest Territories in profiting from diamond mining. Royalties, employment opportunities and tax revenue may lie ahead from, and in, places where they are sorely needed. Mining is a long-term venture relying on good economic policies, political stability and the prospect of decent returns on investment. The provincial government should be careful, but also reasonably venturesome.

To move forward, the province will have to involve northern First Nations. Indigenous communities would best become true partners in the venture to avoid problems that have plagued some other ventures and communities, such as Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario.

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Zimbabwe: The Sad Case of Leaving Minerals in the Ground – by Farai Maguwu (All Africa.com – June 9, 2017)

http://allafrica.com/

Zimbabwe is now a fully fledged resource cursed country where abundance of natural resources is not contributing to economic growth but rather to recession, depressed liquidity, human rights abuses and unmitigated land and water pollution.

Fresh from the farm invasions of the early 2000s, Zimbabwe shifted to extractivism not by design, but rather in response to China’s construction boom which heavily relied on raw materials from Africa, of which Zimbabwe became a major source.

The discovery of Marange diamonds in 2006 and the subsequent entry of obnoxious companies with strong links to the military in 2009 sealed the fate of Zimbabwe as a resource cursed company. Once the military tasted the quick returns of diamonds, they spread their tentacles to every extractable mineral and began negotiating several mineral deals with Asian syndicates who bring the much-needed capital to open new mines and further develop existing ones.

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