Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood – Page 44

Ghost Town Chronicles Meltdown of Botswana’s Metals Industry – by Mbongeni Mguni and Michael Cohen (Bloomberg News – December 12, 2016)

December 12, 2016

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The streets of Selebi Phikwe in northeastern Botswana no longer teem with trucks, and once-busy shop assistants and bank tellers wait for the rare customer.

Since state-owned mining company BCL Ltd. closed its loss-making copper and nickel operation that was the economic lifeblood of the area two months ago, the settlement of 50,000 has become a virtual ghost town.

The government says it can’t afford the 8 billion pula ($752 million) needed to recapitalize the mine. Instead, it’s asked former central bank Governor Linah Mohohlo to oversee a plan to rescue the region. “There is despair, anguish and sorrow,” said Dithapelo Keorapetse, one of the town’s two members of Parliament. “The future for many is uncertain. For some there is no future.”

Following the blood diamond trail from CAR to Cameroon – by Warren Dick (Mineweb.com – December 5, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.mineweb.com/

Conflict diamonds from the Central African Republic (CAR) continue to enter world diamond markets via Cameroon in direct contravention of the Kimberley Process and international law. This is according to a report released by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) last Friday (December 2).

The proceeds of the diamond sales are probably arming the Seleka rebels which are the same group that overthrew the government in 2013 and in the process killed fifteen members of the South African National Defence Force.

Conflict diamonds are defined as “rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments”. CAR is the only source of traditionally defined conflict diamonds in the world today.

NEWS RELEASE: STATEMENTS FROM ATTAWAPISKAT FIRST NATION, NAN ON ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUIT

December 8, 2016

GATINEAU, QC (December 7, 2016): Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Ignace Gull and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler have issued the following statements following legal action by an environmental group over monitoring at the De Beers diamond mine near the remote First Nation community.

“The issues facing our community with respect to our relationship with De Beers, the operation of the Victor Diamond Mine and its impacts in our territory are complex and challenging. I was surprised to learn that this legal action has been taken, and I am concerned that issues of great importance to our community are being addressed in the courts and media without our knowledge, consent or participation.

I must clarify that the Wildlands League, their lawyers and spokespeople, do not speak or act on behalf of Attawapiskat First Nation. The protection and stewardship of our traditional territory is our sacred responsibility.

Rio CEO Wants to Expand in Diamond Mines Rather Than Divest – by Jesse Riseborough and Jonathan Ferro (Bloomberg News – December 6, 2016)

December 7, 2016

https://www.bloomberg.com/

When Rio Tinto Group chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques took the reins of the world’s second-biggest mining company in July, there was speculation he’d sell a host of less desirable mines and smelters.

The firm’s diamond business, underpinned by two underground mines, was considered by some analysts as a candidate to be divested or spun out, particularly after it was combined with the copper unit. In a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer Jacques earmarked the division as a focus for expansion rather than disposal.

“What we want is to improve the quality of our portfolio,” said the Frenchman, who’s known as JS. “I would love to have more diamonds to be very explicit. That’s a priority area.”

De Beers invests $5m to expand Surat diamond grading unit (Times of India – December 6, 2016)

December 7, 2016

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

SURAT: De Beers, a member of the Anglo American group, today said it has invested US $5 million in expansion of its diamond grading and testing centre at Surat in Gujarat.

The move follows the Group’s initial investment of US $10 million in 2015, to establish the facility, which has the capacity to process over US $500 million of diamonds annually.

The facility represents a world-leading resource for India’s diamond cutting and polishing sector, providing polished diamond grading services, diamond verification services and melee (small diamond) testing and screening, International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research (IIDGR) President Jonathan Kendall told reporters here.

Environment group takes De Beers Canada to court over mercury – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters Canada Reuters – December 6, 2016)

December 7, 2016

http://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – An environmental group said on Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against De Beers Canada, accusing the diamond producer of failing to report toxic levels of mercury and methylmercury at its Victor diamond mine in northern Ontario.

The Wildlands League alleged that De Beers Canada failed to report mercury levels from five of nine surface water monitoring stations for the creeks next to its open pit mine between 2009 and 2016.

This was an offense under the Ontario Water Resources Act, the group said in a statement. It said it had alerted the province of Ontario and De Beers Canada to the failures more than 18 months ago.

Environmentalists allege De Beers failed to report on mercury in water – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – December 6, 2016)

December 6, 2016

https://www.thestar.com/

A Canadian environmental group is taking DeBeers Canada to court, claiming the company failed to report toxic levels of mercury and methylmercury in the waters surrounding a northern Ontario diamond mine.

The Wildlands League, a chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, says De Beers has failed to consistently report the levels of methylmercury in the creeks surrounding the Victor Diamond Mine, located 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat First Nation.

De Beers Group denies the allegations, saying, “To suggest that we have not been reporting per our legal requirements for seven years is grossly misleading. That is simply not true.”

Bloody diamonds entering the market now only 0.2% of global supply – by Dylan Slater (MiningWeekly.com – December 2, 2016)

December 2, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The ban on diamond exports from conflict zones is proving successful in curbing so-called ‘conflict diamonds’ from being sold into official and black markets, thereby reducing their use as a potential source of finance for rebel groups.

This is according to nonprofit diamond industry representative organisation World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) president Ernie Blom.

He tells Mining Weekly that the Kimberley Process (KP), which has an interest in both domestic and international issues related to the mining and marketing of diamonds, has been “totally successful” in rooting out the international supply chain areas that are a source of conflict diamonds and blocking those channels. This has eliminated the appeal of operating directly, or by proxy, with those involved in sourcing diamonds from conflict zones.

[Dominion Diamond] Bob Gannicott’s lasting legacy – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – November 18, 2016)

November 25, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

Robert Gannicott, the man who built Canada’s largest diamond mining company, Dominion Diamond (TSX: DDC; NYSE: DDC) and a pioneer of Canada’s diamond scene for 25 years, has died. Gannicott passed away on Aug. 3, at age 69, after a two-year battle with leukemia.

One of the first and most successful entrants into the Lac de Gras diamond rush in the Northwest Territories in the early 1990s, Gannicott is being remembered as a visionary and innovator, as well as for his vast contributions to Canada’s North.

With Grenville Thomas, he played an integral role at Aber Diamond in finding the Diavik mine. Gannicott then led the company through a series of transactions to become Dominion Diamond — the world’s third largest diamond miner after De Beers and Alrosa.

Man-made diamonds, though more affordable, pose challenges on Jewelers Row – by Ally Marotti (Chicago Tribune – November 23, 2016)

November 23, 2016

http://www.chicagotribune.com/

There is a 3-carat diamond waiting for Tammy Borg at a shop on Jewelers Row, one that’s so big it’ll nearly cover the width of her finger. She and her soon-to-be fiance spent weeks hunting for the perfect diamond for her engagement ring, and finally found it at Mon Ami Jewelry. The diamond has a few flaws, Borg said, but to her, it’s perfectly imperfect.

“I would’ve never considered anything other than (a natural diamond),” she said. Jewelers are noticing a change in that blind devotion toward the gemstone in its natural form.

Technology has allowed man-made diamonds to become so similar to mined diamonds that they’re working their way into the jewelry market, for better or worse, with some budget-conscious shoppers requesting them as a cheaper alternative.

First cluster of diamonds to be auctioned from Quebec mine – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – November 21, 2016)

November 21, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

MONTREAL — Stornoway Diamond Corp. is selling its first cluster of Quebec gemstones this week, the introductory auction of what it believes will be a strong market for its diamonds in the years ahead as overall industry supply begins to dwindle.

The Longueuil, Que.-based producer will test the value of its initial batch of diamonds on the open market in Antwerp, Belgium, in a multiday sale ending Nov. 23. Stornoway said it will sell about 91,000 carats of gemstones in roughly two dozen lots arranged by size and quality in a tender process organized by diamond broker Bonas Group. The best offer takes each lot.

“We won’t try and overthink our marketing,” said Matt Manson, Stornoway president and chief executive officer. “We’ll be price takers, within reason. If we get a crazy low price for something, we also have the right to not sell.”

What do Chinese millennials want? De Beers hopes to boost market for N.W.T. diamonds – by Mitch Wiles (CBC News North – November 17, 2016)

November 18, 2016

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

With slower economic growth in China and millennials marrying later in life, the diamond industry is looking closer at what millennials want, how they purchase, and why. According to the 2016 Diamond Insight Report from De Beers, total global diamond jewelry sales fell from $81 billion US in 2014, to $79 billion US in 2015.

The report defines millennials as people born between 1981 and 2000. Chinese millennials represented 68 per cent of that country’s total diamond jewelry purchases. There are 421 million millennials living in China.

Tom Ormsby, head of external and corporate affairs for De Beers Canada, highlighted findings of the report in Yellowknife on Tuesday, at the 44th Annual Geoscience Forum. De Beers operates the Gahcho Kue diamond mine 280 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

Venezuela rejoins global anti-‘blood diamonds’ group – by Girish Gupta (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2016)

November 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

CARACAS – Venezuela has rejoined an international pact to curtail the smuggling of conflict diamonds, vowing to resume issuing export certificates to guarantee the minerals are not being used to finance war or violent activity.

The minerals-rich South American country stopped issuing export certificates in 2005 and unilaterally removed itself three years later as an active participant in the Kimberley Process. The international pact was set up in 2003 to curtail the diamond smuggling that was fueling civil wars in Africa, popularized as “blood diamonds.”

Members of Kimberley met this week in the United Arab Emirates and unanimously agreed to reincorporate the nation, the Venezuelan government said on Friday, in a potential boost to the OPEC country’s struggling economy.

Leonardo DiCaprio and synthetics irritate the diamond industry – by Frank Kane (The National – November 15, 2016)

November 16, 2016

http://www.thenational.ae/

Mention of the name Leonardo DiCaprio tends not to go down too well at meetings of the Kimberley Process, the organisation set up to stop conflict diamonds getting into the global trading chain.

Ever since the 2006 movie Blood Diamond, when DiCaprio played a tough African mercenary with a heart of gold, the Hollywood actor has been regarded by the gems business as a do-gooding liberal pinko who has given the industry a bad name as rapacious exploiters bent on extracting the last carat of value, regardless of the human cost.

The KP “family” (as it calls itself) points out that the industry set up the organisation well before DiCaprio’s movie, and was cleaning up its act even before he delivered such lines as: “will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other?”

After 25 years, the Ekati discovery still rocks the NWT, mining and the world of diamonds (Part 1 of 2) – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – November 2016)

November 14, 2016

http://resourceclips.com/

“You know, there’s something fishy going on around Lac de Gras.” Tom Hoefer remembers hearing that from a local mining guy who dropped by his Yellowknife office one autumn day in 1991. “At the time nobody really cared about Lac de Gras because that was granite country,” Hoefer explains.

But a visit to the mining recorder’s office showed someone staked “a huge block of ground, abnormally large. Doubly suspicious, I think it was registered to Norm’s Manufacturing or Norm’s Mattress Company or something. It was so bizarre. Someone was hiding something.”

Hoefer’s friend offered an explanation. “The only thing I think this could be for is diamonds.” He had previous experience with Monopros, De Beers’ Canadian exploration company. He was also an habitué of the Miner’s Mess, a YK cafe where industry rumours circulated as thickly as the cigarette smoke.