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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

An Open Letter to Leonardo DiCaprio: Taking issue with the star’s rationale for backing a lab-grown diamond company – by Rob Bates (JCK Online.com – January 28, 2016)

http://www.jckonline.com/

Through editorially independent, in-the-know, and compelling journalism, JCK magazine offers readers expanded coverage of the most important jewelry industry issues and style trends impacting their businesses.

Dear, um, Leo:

Back in 2006, before Blood Diamond was released, Nelson Mandela reached out to the stars of the movie and the head of Warner Brothers, worried about its impact on diamond sales and, by association, economies in Africa. You later met with him in Africa.

You seemed to be profoundly impacted by your meeting with one of the great figures of the 20th century. You told one interviewer: “Ultimately, diamonds are a source of social and economic stability in Africa, so this movie isn’t to say people shouldn’t buy diamonds.”

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Legal, illegal Mozambique rubies and legal Angola diamonds in the spotlight – by Keith Campbell (MiningWeekly.com – January 29, 2016)

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

Mozambique mining company Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada has made public its concerns about unfair competition by illegal miners.

The company operates a ruby and corundum mine at Namanhumbir, in the Montepuez district, which lies in the southern region of Cabo Delgado Province. It is 75%-owned by British (London Stock Exchange Aim-listed) enterprise Gemfields and 25% by local business Mwiriti Limitada.

Montepuez Ruby Mining chairperson Asghar Fakir told the Notícias newspaper that illegal mining was still a common occurrence in the area, despite a small decline.

“The phenomenon is not yet fully under control,” he said.

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Opinion: Colonial legacy of mining pioneers poses a dilemma for South Africans -by Prince Mashele (Mail and Guardian – January 25, 2016)

http://mg.co.za/

The Portuguese set foot in South Africa in the 15th century, and the Dutch settled at the “Cape of Storms” in 1652. But the noses of the first interlopers into southern Africa were not sharp enough to fore-smell Kimberley’s hidden diamonds or the Witwatersrand’s entombed gold.

Diamonds were only discovered in 1867 at Kimberley, and, 19 years later, gold on the Witwatersrand.

The group – of mainly Englishmen and Jews – that descended on Kimberley, following the discovery of diamonds was largely the same bunch of money-mongers who flocked to the Witwatersrand when news of gold broke.

By the time the Witwatersrand became the new Mecca of wealth seekers, Kimberley had already produced a diamond cartel led by Cecil John Rhodes –

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Deninu Kue First Nation takes fight for benefits to new Indigenous Affairs minister (CBC News North – January 19, 2016)

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

Wants compensation for not having IBAs with first 3 diamond mines unlike other Akaitcho First Nations

The Deninu Kue First Nation hopes the new federal government will do more to help get it benefits from the Northwest Territories’ diamond mines.

The First Nation is based in Fort Resolution on Akaitcho Territory. Unlike the two other Akaitcho First Nations — the Yellowknives Dene and Lutselk’e — Deninu Kue was excluded from impact benefit agreements (IBAs) with the owners of the Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake diamond mines because its settlement is on the south side of Great Slave Lake.

“What they’re saying is we’re on the south shore of the lake and all the mining’s on the north shore, but … we’re still negotiating for lands, so we should be part of all IBAs that were given to the other [Akaitcho] First Nations,” said Deninu Kue Chief Louis Balsillie.

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Between Rocks and a Hard Place in Africa – by John Feffer (Foreign Policy – January 11, 2016)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

Botswana squeezes more money from diamonds than any other country. Why are its citizens among the poorest in the world?

GABORONE, Botswana — A large billboard on the side of the road urges residents of this dusty capital city to restrict their showers to under three minutes. Even now, during the rainy season, Gaborone is experiencing a severe water shortage. At the luxury casino resort hotel where I stayed on a recent trip, water flowed from the taps only a few hours each day.

The current water shortage offers a stark reminder that Botswana — an arid, land-locked country just north of South Africa — has always been at the mercy of the elements. For its entire post-independence history, the most important element for Botswana has been carbon — the fanciest grade.

The discovery of diamonds in the late 1960s propelled the country from a GDP per capita of $70 to its current upper-middle-income status of roughly $16,000, close to the highest in Africa.

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Surat firms upbeat as prices of polished diamond recover in Jan – by Melvyn Reggie Thomas (Times of India – January 11, 2016)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Surat: The new year has ushered in a positive note for the diamantaires in Surat. After facing a sharp decline in 2015, the polished diamond prices recovered in the new year giving hope to diamantaires over improved market condtions.

According to US-based Rapaport group, the certified polished diamond prices in various category rose by 0.50% to 4.7%. The increase was recorded for the first time after the polished diamond prices witnessed a continuous decline in 2015. According to Rapaport’s Rapnet Price list, the polished diamond prices in various categories decreased between 5.8% and 14.5% last year.

Market sources said that the polished diamond market sentiment improved in December due to shortages supporting prices and dealers filling last-minute holiday orders.

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In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice road – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – December 24, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada’s north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply lifeline to remote diamond mines, bustling with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring.

This year, the world’s busiest ice road is running late. Unseasonably warm weather has set back ice formation on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, named after the first and last of hundreds of lakes on the route.

The road is still expected to open on schedule in late January, but if current weather patterns continue that could mean more work for crews trying to build the ice or cut the road’s already short period of operation.

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Dominion Diamond stock surges after hedge fund pushes for overhaul – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – December 23, 2015)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Shares of Dominion Diamond Corp. jumped on Tuesday following news that a Toronto-based hedge fund is pressing for sweeping changes at the Arctic miner.

K2 & Associates Investment Management Inc. released a letter on Monday in which it said it represented a group of investors that had collectively amassed a 5.4-per-cent stake in Dominion, the world’s third-largest producer of rough diamonds by value.

Josef Vejvoda, a portfolio manager at K2, wrote in the letter that Dominion’s share price has “suffered excessively and unnecessarily as a result of misguided policies and missed opportunities.” He pushed for a meeting with independent directors of the Toronto-based miner to discuss how to halt “the continued erosion of shareholder value.”

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DIAMONDS: CPAWS very wrong about Victor mine – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – December 22, 2015)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Remember hearing that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”? Here is a contemporary corollary: “Especially when you cherry-pick your facts to make another look bad.”

The case in point is the report circulated by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS) Wildlands League. In it the organization accuses De Beers

Canada and its Victor diamond mine in northern Ontario of environmental offenses. CPAWS calls the situation a failure of self-monitoring and urges independent monitoring and reporting.

“The report is greatly misleading,” De Beers Canada’s senior external and corporate affairs manager Tom Ormsby said when contacted by CMJ.

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Why It’s So Hard to Put a Price on the World’s Biggest Diamonds – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – December 22, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

When miners unearth the world’s biggest and rarest of diamonds — like the golf-ball-sized, 357-carat rock found this year in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho — figuring out what they are worth can prove almost as difficult.

Gem Diamonds Ltd., which specializes in digging up stones that only a few billionaires are likely to buy, has been taking some unusual steps to confront that dilemma. The London-based mine owner is replicating on a small scale what middlemen normally do.

It cuts, polishes and re-sells some diamonds to get a better sense of what the market is for the world’s biggest ones. In September, the company had its biggest sale ever when its prized discovery from Lesotho fetched $19.3 million.

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AUDIO: De Beers Victor mine fails to monitor mercury risk, environmental group says – by Jody Porter (CBC News Sudbury – December 21, 2015)

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

Wildlands League calls for independent monitoring of diamond mine near Attawapiskat First Nation

Mercury contamination from the De Beers diamond mine in northern Ontario may be much higher than the company — or the provincial government — are reporting, according to a new study by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Wildlands League.

De Beers denies the allegations, saying in a statement that its environmental data is often misrepresented by other parties.

The Wildlands League study, released Monday and titled Nothing to See Here…, is the result of an 18-month investigation done by the environmental group.

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Discovery adds sparkle to ailing sector – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – December 15, 2015)

https://www.biv.com/

On November 19, Lucara Diamond Corp. (TSX:LUC) stock shot up 30%, closing at $2.10 per share on news that the Vancouver junior mining company had just made the second-biggest diamond discovery in history.

The diamond, a 1,111-carat Type IIa stone found three days earlier at the company’s Karowe mine in Botswana, was spectacular news for a sector that has otherwise been struggling with falling diamond prices and high operating costs – both of which were blamed for De Beers’ recent decision to shutter its Snap Lake mine in the Northwest Territories.

Lucara announced its historic find on November 18; the next day, it announced it had also pulled up an 813-carat white diamond (the sixth-largest) and a 374-carat stone.

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De Beers does the unthinkable – by Gary Vivian (Northern News Service – December 14, 2015)

http://www.miningnorth.com/

Guest Editorial by Gary Vivian, President, NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

De Beers deserves a huge thank you from Northerners for doing what many might believe is the unthinkable. Let me be the first to say it: “Thank you De Beers for Snap Lake”. Lest readers think that I mean closing their mine, I do not. What is quite unthinkable is this.

De Beers came to the NWT in 2005 and brought with them $975 million of their own money to build a diamond mine.

They spent that, and went on to spend over $2.3 billion to construct and operate the mine. Through their supportive northern business policy, they spent over $1.5 billion with northern businesses and joint ventures.

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Diamonds are forever; is Anglo American? – by OLIVIA KUMWENDA-MTAMBO AND FREYA BERRY (Reuters U.S. – December 10, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON – Anglo American’s plans to shut or sell dozens of loss-making mines have failed to halt a dramatic slide in its share price and it may need to sacrifice stronger parts of the business or raise cash from shareholders to pay down its debt.

The company, which grew from gold fields near Johannesburg to dominate diamond, platinum and, to some extent, iron ore markets, is one of many miners struggling with a fall in commodities’ prices driven by lower demand from China.

That makes selling assets that much harder. Anglo’s shares have slumped 11 percent since it announced the biggest restructuring in its nearly 100-year history on Tuesday, leaving it with a market value of $6.7 billion, down from $27 billion a year ago.

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Gahcho Kué diamond mine co-owner welcomes influx of Snap Lake workers – by Mitchel Wiles (CBC News North – December 8, 2015)

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

One of the owners of N.W.T.’s Gahcho Kué diamond project says scooping up about 100 employees from the closing Snap Lake mine will have a “positive impact” as the project races toward first production in 2016.

Gahcho Kué is hiring more staff for what it calls “operational readiness.” According to Patrick Evans, CEO of Mountain Province Diamonds, employees laid off from Snap Lake, just 90 kilometres away, are turning out to be ideal candidates.

“It’s going to have quite a positive impact,” said Evans. “We are able to get fully trained, inducted, and experienced employees.”

Evans said 41 Snap Lake employees have already transferred to the project, and another 60 will follow next year.

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