Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood – Page 48

Dominion beats fiscal Q1 forecasts despite lower sales, Misery production ahead of plan – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 9, 2016)

June 9, 2016

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The NYSE-quoted stock of Canadian diamond producer Dominion Diamond Corp on Thursday rose more than 7% to $11.64 apiece after the company late on Wednesday reported a net loss beating analyst expectations.

The Yellowknife, Northwest Territories-headquartered miner, which owns an 89%-stake in the Ekati mine and is in a 40/60 joint-venture partnership with mining major Rio Tinto at the Diavik mine, reported a net loss attributable to shareholders in the quarter ended April 30 of $1-million, or $0.01 a share, compared with a net income of $12-million, or $0.14 a share diluted a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts had on average expected a loss of $0.10 a share. Dominion reported a 5% year-over-year decline in revenue to $178.3-million. It explained that despite declaring commercial production at the Misery Main kimberlite pipe ahead of schedule in May as a result of changes to the prioritisation of mining activities during the quarter, the transitional period at Ekati continued to impact earnings.

[Zimbabwe diamonds] Women Brave Challenges To Scrape A Living In Mining – by Dumisani Nyoni (Radio Voice Of The People – June 8, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.radiovop.com/

Bulawayo, June 09, 2016 – The face of Nomusa Dube, 40, is dusted red with soil as she and her five female colleagues take a brief lunch break. They have been working since dawn on their gold claim in Esigodini, 49 kilometres from Bulawayo along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge road.

She joined the male-dominated industry in 2014 after her husband succumbed to cancer in 2013. “By that time, I saw my world crumbling as I had nowhere to turn to. Two of my children were at high school and three at primary level. Therefore, I was supposed to pay for their school fees, clothe and feed them,” Dube said, checking the sun’s position – a traditional old practice of estimating time – ready to go back to work.

She tried vending in Bulawayo, but with little success. Low returns, and constant raids from municipality police confiscating their wares sucked her strength. In 2013, government invited women to take up mining to supplement their living and Dube was one of the first to respond.

DPA REVEALS ‘REAL IS RARE’ NATURAL DIAMOND MARKETING CAMPAIGN (Diamond Intelligence.com – June 5, 2016)

June 6, 2016

http://www.diamondintelligence.com/

The Diamond Producers Association (DPA), the organization formed last year by the major diamond mining companies to promote the natural diamond industry, unveiled its new marketing platform for diamonds during a special presentation to members of the jewelry industry at the JCK show in Las Vegas. The DPA team, led by CEO Jean-Marc Lieberherr, outlined plans for the first category marketing campaign in over 5 years and the very first from the DPA.

“The new platform “Real is Rare” is the result of six months of development,” says the DPA, including in-depth research into its target: millennial consumers. The platform emerges from deep insight work with the millennial audience revealing that while diamonds do have appeal for this generation, relevance and emotional engagement can be heightened via new concepts.”

Continues DPA: “Our research reveals that Millennials long for real, lasting connections with others, but struggle to make them – or to feel sure they are truly authentic – in a world of constant flux, seemingly limitless choice, and superficial interactions.

Digging for the missing $15 billion of diamond revenue in Zimbabwe – by Elisa Peter (Huffington Post – June 2, 2016)

June 3, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Elisa Peter is the Executive Director of Publish What You Pay.

When President Mugabe announced on his 92nd birthday, 21st February 2016, that $15 billion worth of revenues generated by the diamond industry had gone missing, the majority of Zimbabweans believed him. Zimbabwe is among the world’s ten largest producers of diamonds.

It is also one of the world’s poorest countries, ranked 156 in the 2014 Human Development Index. Every year, it extracts 4,7 million carats of diamonds, enough to produce millions of engagement rings for enamoured couples around the world. But do people in Zimbabwe benefit from this natural wealth? The answer is a resounding no.

Zimbabwe is not an isolated anomaly. Revenues generated by mining around the world have gone missing for years, the results of a vast and complex web made of illicit financial flaws, tax evasion and disrespect for the rule of law.

Sculptor of stolen $5M solid gold, diamond-encrusted eagle statue fears it will be melted down – by Douglas Quan (National Post – June 1, 2016)

June 2, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

B.C. sculptor Kevin Peters turned on the TV news Monday at noon and was startled to see an image of a one-of-a-kind eagle statue he had crafted several years ago.

At that moment, the phone rang. Ron Shore, the businessman who commissioned the piece of art, was on the other end. He wasn’t his usual self. He sounded defeated.

“I lost the eagle,” Peters recalled him saying. Peters learned that Shore had been violently robbed of the solid-gold statue late Sunday in a residential neighbourhood in Ladner, a suburb south of Vancouver. “That took a minute to sink in,” he said. Official details of how the robbery went down remain murky.

UPDATE 2-Anglo American’s De Beers picks insider Cleaver as CEO (Reuters U.S. – May 27, 2016)

May 27, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

BENGALURU/BRUSSELS, May 27 Anglo American Plc’s De Beers named insider Bruce Cleaver as chief executive of the diamond group, which the global mining company is counting on to help revive its fortunes.

Cleaver takes on the new role at a difficult time for De Beers as Diamond sales stagnated in 2015, hit by a weaker Chinese economy. However, producers are seeing scope for recovery, especially in the United States, which accounts for some 45 percent of demand.

Anglo American, which has an 85 percent stake in De Beers — the world’s largest diamond producer by value — is focusing on the diamond business after a restructuring. Cleaver, 51, was previously group director of strategy and business development at De Beers. He will take over the role on July 1, the company said on Friday.

U.N. Security Council ends more than a decade of sanctions, arms embargo on Liberia – by Louis Charbonneau (Reuters U.S. – May 25, 2016)

May 26, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations Security Council voted on Wednesday to end sanctions and an arms embargo on Liberia, citing the West African country’s successful stabilization more than a decade after a 14-year civil war that killed nearly 250,000 people.

The unanimously adopted resolution by the 15-nation council welcomed “the sustained progress made by the government of Liberia in rebuilding Liberia for the benefit of all Liberians.”

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations David Pressman welcomed the move, saying the targeted sanctions on key individuals, the arms embargo and a ban on the export of Liberian timber and rough diamonds had contributed to Liberia’s stability.

Venezuela to rejoin global group fighting conflict diamonds (Reuters U.S. – May 24, 2016)

May 24, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Venezuela expects to rejoin the global watchdog established to stop trade in conflict diamonds as it seeks to resume diamond exports, its central bank director said on Tuesday.

“We are certain we will rejoin this year,” Jose Khan told Reuters on the sidelines of an international meeting of the group, known as the Kimberley Process.

Khan said Venezuela was a tiny exporter of around 3,000 carats a month until, unable to verify the legitimacy of its diamonds, it stopped issuing export certificates in 2005 and unilaterally removed itself as an active participant in the Kimberley Process in 2008.

After its withdrawal, it was not officially allowed to export diamonds, although some smuggling continued in subsequent years, traders told Reuters.

De Beers eyes diamond exploration in northern Saskatchewan – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 19, 2016)

May 20, 2016

http://thestarphoenix.com/

The world’s largest diamond mining company has entered into a multi-million-dollar agreement to look for crystallized carbon in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.

De Beers Canada Inc. optioned land claims south of Lake Athabasca from CanAlaska Uranium Ltd., and can now spend up to $20.4 million exploring and drilling 75 “kimberlite-style targets” identified in the 2011 Saskatchewan Geological Survey.

“We might have diamonds in Saskatchewan, and De Beers are really interested … This is an opportunity to investigate something completely new,” CanAlaska president and CEO Peter Dasler said Thursday.

Transparency equals bankability, World Diamond Congress hears – by Martin Creamer (Mining Weekly.com – May 19, 2016)

May 20, 2016

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The large number of bad-debt bankruptcies in the diamond industry in recent years was aired on the second day of the 37th World Diamond Congress in Dubai, where much emphasis was again placed on the critical need for financial transparency.

De Beers commercial development head Howard Davies drew attention to the difficulty of banks to view the diamond business as low-risk. “Transactions must all be real with real clients and real invoices. Sustainability multiplied by transparency equals bankability,” Davies told the congress, while also drawing attention to diamond portability facilitating rapid cross-border transactions.

Signet Jewellers VP David Bouffard said his company was committed to the responsible sourcing of diamonds and insisted on knowing where its diamonds were coming from and “who touches them along the way”.

Best friends? Anglo keeps De Beers’ diamonds – by Philip Blenkinsop (Reuters Africa – May 19, 2016)

May 19, 2016

http://af.reuters.com/

ANTWERP (Reuters) – Mining group Anglo American has retained De Beers as a prize asset after a radical overhaul in the belief that surging Chinese and Indian demand for diamonds will outstrip dwindling supply even after a 2015 crunch.

The group, in which Anglo American has an 85 percent stake, has seen its market share fall from over 80 percent in the 1980s to about a third now, losing it control of supply and unleashing price volatility.

Its challenges are compounded by competition from synthetic diamonds and uncertain demand from customers in the “millennial” generation, aged roughly 18 to 34. Anglo has cut the value of De Beers assets in its books each year since 2012, after it had paid $5.1 billion for a 40 percent stake.

Swarovski Joins the Man-Made Diamond Market – by Chaim Even-Zohar (Idex Online.com – May 19, 2016)

May 19, 2016

http://www.idexonline.com/

As is the case in virtually all major strategic corporate moves in the secretive Swarovski crystal empire, its entry into the lab-grown gem-quality diamond business was planned and executed in utmost secrecy. Within the Swarovski family, the world’s leading producer of cut crystals, its former president and chairman, Helmut Swarovski, had endeavored for years to find an entry into the diamond business.

Eventually, Helmut’s daughter, Nadja Swarovski, her cousin, Markus Langes-Swarovski, and the three other family members of the company’s executive committee, made it happen. They are cautiously testing the waters in the man-made diamond jungle. The “Swarovski Created Diamonds” has made its debut.

Swarovski Marketing May Provide ‘Product Differentiation’

For the diamond market, Swarovski’s new brand represents a welcome game changer as the company can potentially provide the ethical, legal and moral leadership in the man-made diamond market.

Rio Tinto reaches 100 million carats milestone at the Diavik diamond mine (Mining.com – May 17, 2016)

May 17, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto, the operator of the Diavik diamond mine in Canada, has announced a major milestone of producing 100 million carats of rough diamonds since the mine commenced in 2003.

Rio Tinto Diamonds, Salt & Uranium managing director Simon Trott said “We are delighted to reach this milestone and I am enormously proud of the teams who have helped make this happen safely and responsibly in some of the harshest operating conditions in the world.”

The Diavik diamond mine, located on an island in a remote sub-arctic lake, is Canada’s largest diamond mine. The mine produces predominantly gem quality diamonds destined for high end jewellery in all major consumer markets around the world.

[Diamond miner Alrosa] Privatising Russian state companies – by Anna Kuchma (Russia and India Report – May 16, 2016)

May 16, 2016

http://in.rbth.com/

The Russian government said at the beginning of this year that it had “a large privatization plan”, within the framework of which it intends to get one trillion rubles ($12.6 billion) in two years. The plan for 2016 includes the sale of shares in two oil companies, Rosneft and Bashneft, a share package in one of the largest state banks, BTV, and the Alrosa diamond company.

At the end of April 2016, the privatization format of the list’s first company was determined. The government decided to sell 10.9 percent of Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond mining company, in the Moscow Stock Exchange, writes the Vedomosti newspaper.

The schedule for the sale is not specified. Earlier, the government considered selling the package to a strategic partner. However, the company itself requested public privatization.

De Beers says diamond market faces ‘fragile recovery’ – by Allan Seccombe (Financial Times – May 16, 2016)

May 16, 2016

http://www.ft.com/

London – The global diamond market faces a “fragile recovery” in spite of efforts by De Beers to stabilise the sector, according to the head of the company. Philippe Mellier highlighted how De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer by value, cut output last year to try to revive the market amid waning demand for diamond jewellery, partly because of China’s economic slowdown.

“It’s a very fragile recovery. The market is not going to bounce back like it did after the last big problems,” he said in a Financial Times interview, referring to the recovery after 2009, when De Beers cut output by half following the global financial crisis that choked off diamond buying.

De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American, has been hit hard by the latest downturn in the diamond market. It reported earnings before interest and tax of $571m for last year, down 58 per cent compared with 2014.