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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

MINES AND TRIBULATIONS: SEARCHING FOR AUSSIE DIAMOND MINES – by Ewen Tyler (Jewller Magazine – August 23, 2016)

http://www.jewellermagazine.com/

Australian geologist EWEN TYLER played a significant role in the discovery of Australia’s three diamond mines. Here, he reveals how they were uncovered and the impediments for diamond exploration today.

It’s never been easy to find a diamond mine and the issues encountered during the discovery and establishment of Australia’s three diamond production centres at Argyle, Ellendale and Merlin prove just that.

After 20 years working in mining exploration in Africa and Europe, I was asked to return to Australia to search for diamonds for Tanganyika Holdings. Diamond was known to exist in every Australian state but only the Wellington Alluvials in NSW had any significant production.

I had studied geology at the University of Western Australia under Rex Prider.

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Rio Tinto Will Close India Bunder Diamond Project to Cut Costs – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 22, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

More than a decade after its discovery, Rio Tinto Group said Monday it will shut the Bunder diamond mine in India by the end of the year, as the world’s second-biggest miner seeks to cut costs and conserve cash.

Bunder remains a top-class diamond deposit and Rio Tinto will work with the federal and Madhya Pradesh state governments to examine options for another investor to take over the project, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

Development of the mine about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of New Delhi has been stymied by delays in environmental approvals that would allow the clearing of a forested area important to tiger and other wildlife habitats. The deposit was discovered in 2004.

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De Beers to begin drilling for diamonds in northern Saskatchewan – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – August 19, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

The world’s largest diamond mining company is expected to launch the next phase of its search for the precious stones in Northern Saskatchewan later this month.

After collecting samples and completing a low-level airborne survey, De Beers Canada Inc. will begin drilling “targets” on the 43,000-acre Northwest Athabasca Kimberlite Project it optioned from CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. earlier this year.

“I think it ticks the boxes for kimberlites, and if you’ve got kimberlites, you should be looking at them for diamonds,” said CanAlaska president and CEO Peter Dasler, referring to the igneous rock formation named for Kimberly, South Africa.

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Attawapiskat eyes new deal with De Beers for reclamation work jobs – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – August 19, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

Members of Attawapiskat First Nation are being asked to give the go-ahead to what the community’s economic development corporation is promoting as “major business venture … that could bring more benefits to the community as well as employment for many members.”

According to a letter sent out to all of the First Nation’s members by the corporation, Attawapiskat Enterprises, the business venture in question is having the Indigenous community directly involved in the site remediation projects after the closure of De Beers’ Victor Mine.

The diamond mine is set to cease operation in 2018, which the development corporation points out will mean that all the jobs it has brought to the community will leave with it, as well as putting the future of their winter road in question.

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De Beers stakes its reputation on spotting the difference – by Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – August 17, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MAIDENHEAD, ENGLAND – In nature it takes billions of years to produce a diamond, or a laboratory can grow one in days and to the untrained eye, it looks the same.

For De Beers, telling the difference is fundamental to protecting its reputation as the world’s leading diamond firm by value and holder of a roughly 30 percent share of the market for genuine rough diamonds.

It guarantees all its own mined diamonds are natural, authenticates diamonds for third parties and makes money from selling its detection equipment. Increasingly sophisticated technology to produce synthetic diamonds drives industry-wide demand for the means to determine whether a stone was created in the earth’s mantle or is man-made.

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WHY BUYERS SHUNNED THE WORLD’S LARGEST DIAMOND – by Matthew Hart (Vanity Fair – August 5, 2016)

http://www.vanityfair.com/

At 1,109 carats, big as a tennis ball, the world’s largest uncut diamond was expected to shatter records at a June Sotheby’s auction. How did the dazzling stone go unsold? An exclusive reveals what went wrong. The assassination of William Lamb began at 6:45 P.M. on a soft June night. Spectators packed the killing ground, a sales room on the second floor of Sotheby’s, in London.

The victim wore the raiment of his caste, a crisp tuxedo. A few yards in front of where he sat, blazing in its spotlight on a plinth beside the auctioneer, was a 1,109-carat top-color white diamond called Lesedi La Rona, the vessel of Lamb’s hopes for a bold new way to sell rough diamonds. His wife had bought him new shoes for the occasion, the toe caps spattered with faux gems. He wore socks patterned with jaunty slashes of color.

The Lesedi diamond opened at $50 million and struggled from the start. Fifty-one million dollars, someone offered, and too long after that, $52 million. This was not the scenario that Lamb had imagined in his dreams. In that version, a forest of bidding paddles would have shot up in the room as eager buyers drove the price north of $100 million.

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DIAMONDS NOT FOREVER: Economists call for Botswana ‘transformation’ – by Mpho Tebele (Southern African News – August 12, 2016)

GABORONE – Economists have urged Botswana to undergo what they termed a second economic transformation. In a report compiled by Econsult Botswana, economists Dr Keith Jefferies and Sethunya Sejoe warned that diamond mining is unlikely to drive economic growth in future, as opposed to providing a foundation for current economic activity and income levels.

“Second, as mines get deeper and more difficult to exploit, costs of production go up and hence profits – and the sector’s contribution to GDP and government revenues – will gradually decline,” the duo said.

Thirdly, they said, the population is growing, so constant diamond production actually entails declining production (and income) per capita. They said there are also various economic and social stresses apparent that require something other than “business as usual”.

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Diamond production down, sales volume up – by Paul Zimnisky (Mining.com – August 9, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

The global economy performed better than most expected in the first-half of 2016, as the world’s largest diamond jewelry market, the U.S., held back on further rate hikes, and policy in China, the world’s fastest growing diamond jewelry market, promoted credit creation.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank has leaned on the side of more-dovish policy so far in 2016 after raising the fed funds rate last December, for the first time in 9 years, which fueled the S&P 500 to a new all-time high in early June after marking a multiyear low in February.

China responded positively to government stimulated credit support which stabilized what had been a volatile 2015 for Chinese property and financial markets. China’s most economically advanced regions, driven by service sectors, such as Shanghai and Beijing metro areas, have showed the most improvement, but the less-developed, industrial-driven regions, primarily in the northern portions of the country,continued a lagging growth trend that first became apparent last year.

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Diamond mining entrepreneur Robert Gannicott dies at 69 – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – August 5, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Robert Gannicott is remembered as one of the pioneers and champions of Canada’s diamond industry, which he helped shape for more than two decades. The 69-year-old mining entrepreneur passed away on Wednesday after a battle with leukemia. He was diagnosed in 2014.

Gannicott will always be linked to one company: Dominion Diamond Corp. He got involved with the firm in 1992, shortly before it discovered the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories, and was a driving force at Dominion right up to this year.

He led the company through tremendous growth and change during his time as chief executive. His key deals were the purchase (and later the sale) of the Harry Winston diamond retail business, and the acquisition of the Ekati mine near Diavik. Today, Dominion is a $1 billion company and is planning a big expansion at Ekati that Gannicott championed.

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GEMS: Gold is not all that glitters – diamonds act as hedge for rich – by David Brough and Atul Prakash (Globe and Mail – July 26, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

GENEVA and LONDON — Reuters – In a packed Christie’s auction room in Geneva, one could hear a pin drop as two anonymous bidders slugged it out in their quest to own the world’s most exquisite blue diamond.

The room in the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues was filled with multimillionaire collectors and diamond dealers, listening intently as the bidders, each speaking by phone to a Christie’s representative, took turns adding a few hundred thousand dollars in a tense struggle dragging on for more than half an hour.

When the auctioneer’s hammer came down, spontaneous applause broke out as the winner, who retained anonymity, bought the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue for a world record $57.5-million (U.S.) for any jewel sold at auction. The sale some weeks ago was the latest in a series of world record prices per carat paid at auction for extraordinarily magnificent and rare diamonds.

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De Beers unlikely to find buyer for Snap Lake mine, says analyst – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – July 26, 2016)

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

Current diamond prices a deterrent to buyers

Groundwater problems, weakened diamond prices and a thinning crowd of diamond producers mean De Beers is “very unlikely” to find a buyer for the Snap Lake mine before the company floods it later this year, says one diamond industry analyst.

“I don’t see somebody buying it and turning it back on and producing at current prices,” says Paul Zimnisky. He says his data indicates diamond prices are only up about five per cent since De Beers halted production at the N.W.T. mine in December.

If a junior mining company does agree to purchase Snap Lake, it will likely do so under a “call out option” — acquiring and sitting on a mine for the express purpose of reselling it once prices improve.

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Two Canadian diamond projects to see first production this quarter – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – July 18, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada has two diamond projects that are expected to start first production during the current quarter, with De Beers Canada’s Gahcho Kué project, in the Northwest Territories, making commissioning progress and Stornoway Diamond Corp starting with ore processing at the Renard project, in Quebec.

TSX-listed Stornoway on Friday announced that it had started the processing ramp-up to 2.16-million tonnes, within nine months, at 78% plant utilisation, ahead of schedule.

The operation, Quebec’s only diamond mine, would achieve commercial production, maintaining ore processing, for 30 days, at 60% nameplate capacity.

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Namibia’s Diamond Discoveries Seen Extending Mining by 50 Years – by Felix Njini (Bloomberg News – July 18, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Discoveries of diamonds on land bordering the southern Atlantic coastal areas of Namibia, the world’s largest producer of marine gems, may extend ground-based mining operations by another 50 years, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein said.

Namdeb Diamond Corp., jointly owned by the Namibian government and Anglo American Plc’s De Beers, struck more deposits after pushing back the sea wall at its land-based operations, Schlettwein said an interview Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, where he was attending the African Union summit.

“An additional resource has been now made available,” he said. “And with that, the life of mine from the land-based operations has been extended by another 50 years.”

Namdeb, as the De Beers unit is known, uses the latest technology to scour the bottom of the Atlantic for gems.

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Emerald city: How gemstone-rich Colombia is embracing ethical sourcing – by Nathalie Atkinson (Globe and Mail – July 15, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

It may be churlish of me to highlight this during wedding season, but as scientist and jeweller Aja Raden points out in her cultural history Stoned, gemstones are “just colourful gravel.” She elaborates on the fraught history and desire around precious objects – pearls, emeralds, wristwatches – with diamonds as one cautionary tale via Marie Antoinette, whose downfall was precipitated by jewellery.

The human history of attraction to bright shiny objects has not exactly been about supply chain integrity or corporate social responsibility – instead, think envy, greed, violence, suffering, slavery, incursions and the guillotine.

To understand the role of gems and jewels in luxury today, it’s necessary to consider, as Raden does, the brilliant “A diamond is forever” campaign that De Beers whipped up in 1947 after the South African diamond rush that saw the company gain control of 99 per cent of the planet’s diamonds.

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Peregrine Diamonds needs a $95M all-weather road – by Jane Sponagle (CBC News North – July 13, 2016)

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

‘The road in is a critical piece of infrastructure’

A diamond company working on Baffin Island says it could spend 10 years extracting roughly $2.5 billion in net revenue — but first it needs to build a $95 million all-weather road to Iqaluit.

Peregrine Diamonds president and chief executive officer Tom Peregoodoff held a conference call with stakeholders Tuesday to talk about the two kimberlite pipes that make up phase one of the Chidliak diamond project, 120 km northeast of Iqaluit. Peregrine has been exploring at Chidliak since 2005.

But to get the project up and running, the company needs to build a 160 km all-season road from Iqaluit to the site. “The road in is a critical piece of infrastructure and we need that prior to commencement of construction to minimize our construction capital costs,” said Peregoodoff.

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