Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood – Page 54

Lucara shares surge on discovery of 1,111-carat diamond – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Lucara Diamond Corp.’s stock soared by as much as 37 per cent after the Vancouver miner said it had unearthed the biggest diamond to be found in more than a century.

The 1,111-carat, gem-quality stone is slightly smaller than a tennis ball. It was dug out of Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana.

The diamond, the second-largest in history, is one of several giant finds that the company has recently uncovered. Lucara, part of the mining and energy group headed by Lukas Lundin, also reported it had found an 813-carat stone that ranks as the sixth-largest ever discovered.

Canadian miner Lucara finds 1,111-carat diamond — believed to be second-largest ever – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

A Canadian mining company has recovered a diamond for the ages. The astounding stone has no precedent in the past century and will command a massive price at auction. The only question is how high it will go.

Lucara Diamond Corp. said it recovered a gigantic 1,111-carat, gem-quality diamond from its Karowe mine in Botswana this week. To put that in perspective, it is believed to be the second-largest gem-quality stone ever found. The only one known to be bigger is the legendary Cullinan diamond, which was recovered in South Africa in 1905 and weighed 3,106.75 carats.

De Beers seeks First Nation exploration support – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – November 18, 2015)

November 18, 2015November 18, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

A De Beers Canada team from is visiting Ontario’s remote Weenusk First Nation, seeking community support to conduct diamond exploration work.

An exploration team from De Beers Canada was expected to be in northern Ontario’s remote Weenusk First Nation on Tuesday, to seek community support to conduct diamond exploration work.

Weenusk First Nation, or Peawanuck, is a small community of nearly 400 people, 1,400 km north of Toronto, on the shores of the Winisk River.

Diamonds Are Abundant – by Peter Diamandis (Huffington Post – November 16, 2015)

November 17, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Peter Diamandis is the Chairman/CEO of XPRIZE.

What’s more scarce than perfect diamonds, right? Wrong.

This week, a new company called Diamond Foundry announced that it is able to “grow” hundreds of perfect, “real” diamonds (up to nine carats) in just two weeks in a lab.

Announced “above the line of supercredibility,” with the backing of Leonardo DiCaprio and 10 billionaires, my friend Martin Roscheisen is about to disrupt an industry that has been built on scarcity for centuries.

More details on Diamond Foundry in a second… but in the meantime, this audacious company really begs the question: What is truly scarce?

Buying diamonds this festive season? Bigger is better – by Prinesha Naidoo (Mineweb.com – November 12, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Industry’s woes have all but wiped out the value of large diamonds.

JOHANNESBURG – The global diamond industry appears to be in a precarious position with weak consumer demand, a supply overhang and a credit crunch among rough diamond traders weighing on prices.

According to various reports, rough diamond prices have decreased more than 12% this year alone. The RapNet Diamond Index (see table above) reveals prices for polished stones between 0.3 carats (ct.) and 3 ct. and reveal how prices have plummeted between January 1 and November 1 this year.

Similarly, data from PriceScope (see chart below) shows the average price of stones between 0 and 0.5 ct. are now lower than at any point during the financial crisis.

As with industrial commodities, much of the decline in diamond prices has been blamed on slowing economic growth in China, the world’s second largest consumer of diamonds after the United States.

Hong Kong tycoon buys record $48.5 million ‘blue moon’ diamond for 7-year-old daughter – by Kelvin Chan and Jamey Keaten (Associated Press/Toronto Star – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Convicted billionaire property developer Joseph Lau spent a total of $77 million on two rare diamonds for his 7-year-old daughter Josephine at Geneva auctions.

GENEVA—A Hong Kong billionaire tycoon paid a total of $77 million (U.S.) at auctions in Geneva for two large and rare coloured diamonds for his 7-year-old daughter Josephine — and renamed them after her, his office said Thursday.

Joseph Lau was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat “Blue Moon” diamond that sold Wednesday night for a record-setting 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.5 million U.S.), said a spokeswoman for Lau, who declined to give her name. Sotheby’s said the buyer promptly renamed the pricier gem “The Blue Moon of Josephine.”

Was Billionaire Steinmetz Betrayed by CEO Over Diamond Mine? – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The prize is a chunk of African earth that yields some of the most valuable diamonds on the planet for premium jeweler Tiffany & Co.

The fight for the Koidu mine in Sierra Leone pits embattled Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and his BSG Resources Ltd. against a government struggling to revive an economy crippled by the global commodities slump and Ebola’s deadliest outbreak ever.

But waiting in the wings are two high-profile bankers and a star of “The Hunger Games” movie franchise who are keen to buy the asset. Add to the plot a secret recording of Steinmetz’s now-former point man for the project and what appears is a story of betrayal that offers a rare glimpse into the ways natural resources companies operate in some of the world’s poorest countries.

“I’m taking off my BSGR hat here,” the chief executive officer of Steinmetz’s BSGR, Brett Richards, told an August meeting of officials in Freetown, including Mines and Mineral Resources Minister Minkailu Mansaray.

10 billionaires and Leonardo DiCaprio just invested in a startup that claims it can grow hundreds of real diamonds in 2 weeks – by Alyson Shontell (Business Insider – November 11, 2015)

November 11, 2015

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Diamond Foundry has spent the last three years quietly working on an ambitious project.

The Santa Clara startup, created by Nanosolar founder Martin Roscheisen, wanted to grow “real” diamonds in a lab. Unlike synthetic diamonds, these would be hatched from a sliver of a natural, mined diamond as the substrate.

After two years of experiments with failed diamond-growing reactors, Roscheisen’s team says it cracked the code. Now the company claims to be able to grow hundreds of diamonds that are up to nine carats in just two weeks in a lab.

The breakthrough was enough to convince ten billionaires and members of Silicon Valley tech royalty to invest.

Borrowing From Solar and Chip Tech to Make Diamonds Faster and Cheaper – by John Markoff (New York Times – November 11, 2015)

November 11, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Just a decade ago, Silicon Valley had high hopes of becoming a vibrant manufacturing center, making solar panels. But price competition from abroad, particularly China, quickly dashed those dreams.

And so the founders of Nanosolar, one of the largest start-ups, began exploring ways to build to apply their expertise to new technologies.

On Wednesday, a group of engineers and scientists, led by a founder of Nanosolar, R. Martin Roscheisen, will announce that it has developed an advanced approach to making diamonds, using technology derived in part from making silicon chips and solar cells.

The first synthetic diamond processes appeared in the early 1950s, and the commercialization of manufacturing diamonds has grown to the point that at least 10 companies now make either commercial or industrial diamonds.

But the Diamond Foundry claims to have made proprietary breakthroughs that will make it possible to manufacture high quality diamonds more quickly and cost effectively than existing technologies.

Diamonds Aren’t Forever for Botswana as Mining Boom Fades – by Michael Cohen (Bloomberg News – November 5, 2015)

November 5, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The honeymoon is over in Botswana, where the diamond industry that led the world has fallen on hard times.
The discovery of the gems nearly half a century ago transformed the southern African nation from a dusty farming backwater into one of the continent’s wealthiest societies.

Thousands of miles of dirt roads were paved and schools and clinics built in every town. The capital, Gaborone, once a rural village, is now dotted with office blocks and malls occupied by South African chains like Shoprite Holdings Ltd. The country’s finances were in such good shape that Botswana earned the highest credit rating in Africa.

Now the diamond mining industry is floundering as jewelry sales stagnate amid a slowdown in China. An index of rough diamond prices hit a five-year low last month. With most diamonds near the surface having been extracted from Botswana’s mines, the gems are also becoming increasingly inaccessible.

Last year Botswana was overtaken by Russia as the world’s top producer.

How Diamonds Became Forever – by J. Courtney Sullivan (New York Times – May 3, 2013)

November 2, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Peggy Olson, that emblem of the pioneering ad woman in a man’s world on the television show “Mad Men,” would have been all of 8 years old on the night in 1947 when the real-life copywriter Frances Gerety coined the phrase “A Diamond Is Forever.”

As Ms. Gerety recalled in a 1988 interview with a co-worker, Howard Davis, she had just finished a series of ads and was headed to bed when she realized that she had forgotten to create a signature line. Exhausted, she said “Dear God, send me a line,” and scribbled something on a slip of paper. When she woke up and saw what she had written, she thought it was just O.K. A few hours later, she presented her idea at a meeting. According to her, “Nobody jumped.”

When Ms. Gerety applied to work at the Philadelphia advertising agency N.W. Ayer & Son in 1943, she was told that her timing was perfect: the agency had just lost a female copywriter.

Why is beneficiation in the diamond industry failing? – by Nastassia Arendse (Mineweb.com – October 28, 2015)

October 28, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Legislation has become a defining feature of the investment regime and is now a liability.

A beautiful parcel of rough diamonds lies across the table as Ilan Kaplan, Vice Chairman of the Diamond Manufacturers Association shares the story behind the issues faced by a typical beneficiator.

The audience at the Diamond Indaba looks on while he explains that apart from the sourcing of diamonds, one of the issues is finding a manufacturer. One has a choice of using an operation that is either based in Johannesburg (a state-of-the-art operation) or in neighbouring Southern Africa. Once you have sourced the goods, you have to pay VAT on your purchase.

Yes, you might get the VAT back in maybe 60 or 90 days, but it will have a major cash flow impact on your business. This reduces your further purchasing ability if another opportunity arises in the interim.

Kaplan says that 30% of the diamonds on the table cannot be manufactured profitably.

Canada’s once-booming Arctic diamond sector loses luster – by Susan Taylor (Reuters Canada – October 27, 2015)

November 3, 2015October 27, 2015

http://ca.reuters.com/

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories (Reuters) – A decline in diamond prices because of lower growth in Chinese jewelry demand is dulling the appeal of Canada’s Arctic diamond industry, with the resulting drop in exploration hurting the region’s long-term prospects.

Exploration spending in Canada’s diamond-rich Northwest Territories (NWT), the world’s third-biggest producer, is forecast to drop 54 percent this year, according to a Canadian government estimate earlier this year. That is bad news for an industry where even profitable deposits can take 10 to 20 years to develop into a mine.

“It’s worrisome,” said Tom Hoefer, executive director of NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, which is based in Yellowknife, the territories’ economic hub and capital. “Exploration is the lifeblood of mining.”

Once the engine for booming diamond demand, the growth in China’s appetite for polished gems has slowed alongside its economy.

Anglo American-owned De Beers, the world’s top producer by value, expects 3-5 percent sales growth in China this year for its polished diamonds.

India a factor in diamond trade migration from Antwerp to Dubai – by Kunal Bose (Business Standard – October 26, 2015)

October 26, 2015

http://www.business-standard.com/

Earlier, the rough diamond cutting and polishing business had moved from Antwerp to Surat in Gujarat and a few other places, due to cost considerations

For gem traders and jewellery makers over the world, Dubai remains an important trade centre for pearls. But, of late, a growing portion of trade in rough diamonds is getting shifted from the Belgian port city of Antwerp to Dubai, a constituent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Earlier, the rough diamond cutting and polishing business had moved from Antwerp to Surat in Gujarat and a few other places, due to cost considerations.

Business in rough, is now being squeezed out of the diamond district of Antwerp, which accommodates a World Diamond Centre and four trading exchanges, as dealers are finding it difficult to get bank funding. The big blow to dealers there, mostly Jews and Indians, came when Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB) started the process of winding up operations globally, leaving a big gap in trade funding.

ADB used to make available around $1.5 billion to the trade. Also, toughening of banking regulations and non-governmental organisations doubting the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process Certification scheme (KPCS) in stopping all ‘blood diamonds’ finding their way into the legal market have made some other banks curb lending to the trade.

Documentary film looks at effects of mine on Attawapiskat – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – October 22, 2015)

November 3, 2015October 22, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

What is it like for a northern First Nations community to live beside a diamond mine?

Documentary filmmaker Victoria Lean zeroes in on what it is like for the Attawapiskat First Nation to be neighbours with the Victor diamond mine in her film After the Last River.

The Victor mine, owned by global mining giant De Beers, is just 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat, a community in James Bay District that has battled floods, an ongoing housing crisis and a massive diesel spill underneath an old school.

Lean set out to tell a story about the consequences of mining in one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the North, and in doing so she unearthed the challenges of a community struggling to exist.