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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz held in Greece on Romanian arrest warrant – by Agencies and ToI Staff (Times of Israel – October 14, 2024)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/

Businessman detained hours after arriving on private aircraft at Athens International Airport; Romania has convicted him in absentia for real estate fraud

French-Israeli diamond mining magnate Beny Steinmetz was detained in Athens on an arrest warrant issued by Romania, police and legal sources said on Monday. The 68-year-old was detained on Sunday, hours after arriving on a private aircraft at Athens International Airport, police sources said.

A European arrest warrant was issued against him on behalf of Romania on accusations related to being part of a criminal organization, a police official said on condition of anonymity. Steinmetz was expected to appear before a prosecutor later Monday.

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Natural diamond supply has peaked, De Beers’ Madondo says – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – October 4, 2024)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

De Beers group managed operations CEO Moses Madondo has said the supply of natural diamonds has peaked, with dwindling new discoveries on the horizon.

“We must recognise that we are already past the peak for diamond supply. Despite extensive exploration, only one commercial discovery – the Luele mine in Angola – has been made in the twenty-first century,” he said on the second day of the Joburg Indaba, in Johannesburg, on October 4.

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Burgundy Diamond Mines pauses plan for critical Ekati expansion (CBC News North – September 25, 2024)

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

Company also asking N.W.T. gov’t to reduce burden of ‘onerous’ mining regulations

The company that owns the Ekati diamond mine in the N.W.T. has paused a plan to develop an underground project at one of the mine’s pits — a plan it previously said was critical to Ekati’s future.

Burgundy Diamond Mines notified the Wek’èezhìı Land and Water Board Tuesday that it would be withdrawing its application for the Sable Underground development. It previously said its entire business could hinge on that project, and without it, Burgundy “risks the financial viability and sustainability of the business.”

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‘Nobody alive has ever seen something like this’: Inside the plan to sell the biggest gems on Earth – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 28, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Vancouver-based miner Lucara found a 2,492-carat diamond in August. Since then, the company’s CEO has urged patience in the hunt for a buyer as the sector looks to dig itself out of a price slump

The morning of Aug. 19 started off much like any other at Lucara Diamond Corp.’s Karowe mine in Botswana, a roughly 270-metre deep open pit on the edge of the Kalahari desert that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But on that day, a 2,492-carat diamond — believed to be the second largest ever held by a human — completed a journey from hundreds of kilometres inside the Earth’s mantle up to the planet’s surface.

After billions of years of travel, its fate upon arrival fell into the hands of William Lamb, chief executive of Lucara, whose sector has been going through its own upheaval amid a collapse in the price of diamonds in recent years.

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Firm Prices at De Beers and Alrosa Likely Here to Stay – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – September 19, 2024)

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Miners press ahead with policy of supply flexibility.

As the industry gathered in Hong Kong for the Jewellery & Gem World (JWG) show this week, important talks about the diamond industry’s difficulties were happening elsewhere. Executives from Alrosa, which continues to sell rough despite being cut off from much of the market, met with customers and other trade members in India and Dubai over the past few days to explain how they viewed the current challenges, insiders told Rapaport News this week.

Their message: The miner is in no rush to reduce rough prices. Instead, the policy of not flooding the market — a likely consequence of price reductions — will continue, according to the sources. Buyers will be able to choose whether to make purchases.

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Lab-grown diamonds are ethical, cheaper, blood-less. So why aren’t they as popular? – by Medha Chawla (India Today – September 25, 2024)

https://www.indiatoday.in/

Celebrities like Meghan Markle, Zoe Kravitz, Lady Gaga, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi approve of lab-grown diamonds. They are cheaper and conflict-free, but why aren’t they mainstream yet?

When Divya (name changed on request), a 31-year-old bride-to-be from Delhi, was in the middle of her wedding ring shopping, the idea of opting for a lab-grown diamond did cross her mind. Unlike natural mined diamonds, lab-grown ones don’t cost a bomb – they can be up to five times cheaper.

Yet, Divya, who went to great lengths to make her wedding a budget-friendly event, found herself inclining more towards a natural diamond ring than a lab-grown one because of its “sentimental value”.

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Diamonds aren’t forever: Botswana looks beyond mining – by Ben Payton (African Business – September 24, 2024)

https://african.business/

President Mokgweetsi Masisi basked in a moment of triumph on 22 August, as he unveiled the largest diamond discovered anywhere in the world for more than a century to an excited crowd of journalists and officials in Gaborone. “What?!” he exclaimed, his eyes popping with delight as he felt the weight of the stone. “I am lucky to have seen it in my time.”

The presentation of the second-largest diamond ever wrenched from the Earth appears to be the latest glittering chapter in Botswana’s success story. The stone, extracted from the Karowe mine by Canadian company Lucara, provides seemingly irrefutable evidence that the southern African nation remains a diamond superpower.

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Diamond Mining Losing Its Sparkle As Lab-Grown Market Share Rises – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – September 23, 2024)

https://www.forbes.com/

Tim Treadgold is an Australian journalist specializing in mining

The decline of diamonds as a store of wealth is accelerating as low-cost laboratory gems seize more of the market, eating into the share of mined stones and devaluing family heirloom jewelry.

Not a topic comfortable for the traditional diamond and jewelry industries, the latest financial analysis highlights the challenge caused by the shift from a high value, low volume business, to high volume/lower value. According to Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, lab-grown diamonds accounted for an estimated 14.3% of total diamond supply last year — 16 million carats versus newly-mined supply of 112 million carats.

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Diamond finds could extend NWT’s Misery mine ‘well past 2026,’ Burgundy says – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – September 10, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Results from summer drilling at Burgundy Diamond’s (ASX: BDM) Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories could help extend production at the underground Misery mine much longer than expected, the company says.

Out of 710 metres drilled across six holes in July, the crew found a fancy yellow diamond about 25 metres below the last planned mine level. Drilling that targeted Misery’s main ore body confirmed the company’s belief that there’s a larger body at depth.

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Is Diamond Production on the Decline? – by Avi Krawitz (Rapaport Magazine – September 2, 2024)

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The drop in diamond recoveries is a response to market conditions, but also a reflection of diminishing prospects for viable new mines.

Diamond miners are postponing sales and reviewing their production plans amid the weak market environment.

“We have taken the proactive decision to defer the upcoming August-September tender from our South African operations, to support steps taken by major producers to restrict supply in this weaker demand period,” Petra Diamonds said in an August 6 statement.

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The South African who inherited a R170 billion diamond legacy – by Kirsten Minnaar (Daily Invester – September 1, 2024)

https://dailyinvestor.com/

Nicky Oppenheimer was born into one of South Africa’s most formidable diamond-mining families, but when hard times hit, he had to leave the family business.

Despite being the second-richest man in South Africa with a net worth of $9.5 billion (R171 billion) and being part of one of the country’s most influential families, Oppenheimer is incredibly reserved and humble. Nicholas Frank Oppenheimer was born in 1945 in Johannesburg into a diamond dynasty.

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From diamonds to coal – The tragedy of trade – by Nandkumar M Kamat (Navhind Times – November 22, 2020)

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The hand of history is sometimes cruel. After enjoying status as an international diamond trading hub, Goa is now concerned about turning into a major coal importing hub in Indo-Pacific. Since there is a lot of attention to coal in local public discourse, people have forgotten the position of Goa in a related commodity- diamonds. Diamond and coal offer stark contrasts.

Diamond and coal are allotropes of carbon. Diamond is defined as a glimmering glass-like mineral that is an allotrope of carbon in which each atom is surrounded by four others in the form of a tetrahedron. Coal is defined as a black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.

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Lab-Grown Diamond Prices Are Falling. Here’s Why That’s Not a Bad Thing. – by Nick Scott (Robb Report – September 1, 2024)

https://robbreport.com/

The man-made stone have never had the cachet or complicated romance of mined stones. But perhaps we’re not thinking expansively enough about their best use.

Scientists discovered the ability to create synthetic diamonds back in 1954, and we’ve been arguing about them ever since. Not only about whether a man-made gemstone could be considered the same as one produced by geologic phenomenon over the course of eons—the two are chemically identical, after all, and indistinguishable to the naked eye—but also about whether it should be.

Lab-grown stones have always seemed to solve for certain ethical and environmental conundrums within the diamond industry, but as human beings, we also like our rarities, well, rare. It’s a debate, in other words, over whether diamonds are still “forever” if they’re also for everyone.

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Second-Largest Diamond Ever Found Is Discovered in Botswana – by Lynsey Chutel (New York Times – August 22, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The diamond was unearthed using new technology, and miners hope it will bring back luster to a struggling industry.

The diamond was so large that it obscured the face of Botswana’s president as he held it up for closer inspection on Thursday.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found.

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Lucara finds world’s 2nd largest diamond ever mined – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 22, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Lucara Diamond (TSX: LUC), has dug up a 2,492 carat diamond from its prolific Karowe mine in Botswana, the world’s second-largest stone ever mined in terms of size.

The “epic” diamond, as Lucara put it, was detected and recovered by the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery (MDR) X-ray Transmission (XRT) technology, installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value stones.

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