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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

Now Oppenheimer properties edge out of De Beers’ Diamond Route – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – October 20, 2015)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Oppenheimer family, which three years ago sold out of diamond company De Beers, announced on Tuesday that it was delinking the properties of E Oppenheimer & Son from the Diamond Route, which takes in the 250 000 ha of cross-regional land that originally kept potential diamond thieves far away from diamond diggings, but which is today geared to conservation and ecotourism, incorporating new and largely undiscovered natural wonders, as well as historical and cultural elements.

In an opening address to the sixth Diamond Route research conference in Johannesburg, Nicky Oppenheimer, who launched the initiative at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 while chairperson of De Beers, said that long and hard thought had been put into separating “and it seems to me that this is the right time for the Oppenheimer properties to separate themselves from the Diamond Route”.

Oppenheimer emphasised that the decision was not being taken with any sense of conflict or anger but was the result of the “inevitable drifting apart that takes place when entities are no longer rubbing shoulders, joined at the hip”.

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Anglo American slides on De Beers downturn fears – by Bryce Elder (Financial Times – October 19, 2015)

http://www.ft.com/

Anglo American was Monday’s sharpest FTSE 100 faller on worries that its balance sheet strength will be tested by a downturn at De Beers, its most profitable division.

De Beers is likely to be the laggard when Anglo delivers its third-quarter production update on Thursday, said dealers.

The diamonds business, which accounted for nearly a third of Anglo’s first-half operating profit, has been under pressure as stone polishers run down inventories following a weak end to 2014.
Citigroup forecast Anglo’s diamond production by weight to have fallen 11 per cent against the previous quarter.

Over the same period rough diamond prices slipped as much as 10 per cent with demand squeezed by a strong dollar and a credit crunch among the polishers.

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Alrosa president ‘concerned’ over synthetic diamonds – by Tom Davis (Jewellery Focus – October 15, 2015)

http://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/

Andrey Zharkov, president of Russian diamond mining company Alrosa, has warned that the diamond industry is suffering from reputation risks due to synthetic stones.

Speaking at the World Diamond Council (WDC) in Moscow on Tuesday, October 13, Zharkov said that the industry should be concerned by “growing occasions” on the market when natural diamonds are mixed with synthetic diamonds, or when “stones are worked on for the purpose of their improvement.”

Under a new Russian law “stones of synthetic origin, even having characteristics of natural stones, are not considered to be precious ones,” he said. “Therefore, the law determines that synthetic stones cannot be associated with precious stones.”

He said that Alrosa is conducting research into developing faster and more effective synthetic diamond detection devices. The WDC will play a more active role in defending and supporting the “favourable reputation and positive image of the diamond industry”, he said.

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How Illegal Diamond Mining Threatens Brazil’s Indigenous Communities – by Fellipe Abreu and Luiz Felipe Silva (InSight Crime – October 14, 2015)

http://www.insightcrime.org/

The Cinta-Larga indigenous group in Brazil is on the brink of collapse as they struggle to confront illegal mining in one of the world’s largest diamond deposits.

“Our land is our spirit. An indigenous person without his land is an indigenous person without a soul.” This is how one of the leaders of the Cinta-Larga tribe ends his speech at a meeting held in May to discuss new indigenous policies. Believed by the indigenous to be inseparable, the land and the soul of the Cinta-Larga suffer together: the cultural genocide and the violence against their members is the result of violations that occurred on the grounds that they consider sacred.

Beneath the indigenous reserves Roosevelt, Serra Morena, Aripuanã and Aripuanã Park, between the states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso where the Cinta-Larga live, hides what may be the world’s largest diamond deposit. The glistening of the stones began to attract illegal miners to the Lajes creek region between 1999 and 2000. The demarcated indigenous territory (which in theory can not be used for mining activity, except for informal mining conducted by the indigenous themselves) is a clearing approximately 10 kilometers wide and 2 kilometers long, in addition to an appendix called the Grota do Sossego, which also spans 2 kilometers.

However, miners and indigenous estimate the area to be larger: they say more than 1,000 hectares are used for exploratory mining.

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Cree community looks on warily as De Beers scours North for diamonds – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – October 10, 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.

With De Beers’ Victor Mine near Attawapiskat approaching the end of its lifespan, the company is looking farther north — causing a stir in Peawanuck, where residents are concerned about protecting their traditional lands.

WEENUSK FIRST NATION, ONT.—From a height of 300 metres, Jennifer Wabano looks out the window of the eight-seat float plane as it approaches the Winisk River watershed.

Wabano, a mother of 10, watches the mesmerizing landscape of the Hudson Bay Lowlands. String bogs resembling giant tiger stripes splashed across the land stretch for miles before giving way to fields of pristine, lime-green peatland that is thousands of years old. Scattered throughout the peat are hundreds of freshwater lakes of all shapes and sizes that were formed a millennium ago by retreating glaciers.

The lowlands are one of the world’s last untouched carbon storehouses, trapping the gases that warm the globe at an increasingly alarming rate. Bald eagles nest along the banks of the Winisk River. In summer, polar bears wander through town in search of food. Brook trout are caught in the mud flats of Hudson Bay. Migratory caribou and moose are staples in this community that continues to depend on the land for its existence.

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The blood diamond trade is tearing the Central African Republic apart – by Jake Flanagin (Quartz Africa – September 30, 2015)

http://qz.com/

The Central African Republic (CAR)—one of the poorest countries in the world—has been embroiled in intense religious conflict since Dec. 2012. Fighting between the predominantly Muslim rebels (known as the Séléka) and Christian/animist anti-balaka militia broke out when the former accused Christian president François Bozizé of violating peace agreements laid down in 2007 and 2011.

The Séléka supplanted Bozizé with their own president, Michel Djotodia, from Mar. 2013 to Jan. 2014; though he has since been replaced by two acting presidents—currently, former mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza.

Conflict has continued into 2015, marred by reports of massacres committed by the anti-balakas against Muslims (which constitute roughly 15% of the national population).

In the midst of one of the bloodiest conflicts the region has seen in recent years, with the death toll of more than 5,000, according to Amnesty International, Western companies have quietly carried out business as usual. Such is the hypnotic draw of Central Africa’s diamond industry.

Prior to the Séléka’s gaining the presidency, diamonds represented about half of the CAR’s total exports, and 20% of its budget receipts.

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[Dubai] The New Diamond Capital – by Stian Overdahl (Bloomberg Businessweek – April 1, 2015)

http://www.businessweekme.com/

Dubai closes in on rival centres such as Mumbai and Antwerp

When India’s diamond manufacturing industry began to grow quickly in the 1960s, members of its family-run businesses had to travel to Antwerp, Belgium to buy the rough stones from diamond traders. Since the 15th century, Antwerp had been the centre of the diamond world, its Diamond Quarter bustling with buyers and sellers of rough and polished stones, conducting their trade among a host of cutting and polishing workshops.

With cheaper manpower than the traditional manufacturing centres of Antwerp and New York, and new machines that made the process easier, India’s cutting and polishing industry boomed. By cutting smaller stones that hadn’t been considered profitable previously, Indian manufacturers made greater returns.

Over time, Indian buyers moved higher up the ladder, able to buy directly from producers, rather than from wholesalers or dealers. Today, India dominates the manufacturing sector, responsible for more than 80 per cent of the world’s output of polished stones. But nowadays there’s less need for India’s diamantaires to make the long journey to Antwerp. Dubai—a new global hub for diamond trading—is only three hours away.

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New Old World: How Indian families took over the Antwerp diamond trade from orthodox Jews – by Pallavi Aiyar (Quartz India.com – July 23, 2015)

http://qz.com/

This is excerpted from New Old World: An Indian Journalist Discovers the Changing Face of Europe.

Antwerp’s diamond business had long been controlled by its orthodox, largely Hasidic Jewish community.

Although 65% of the Jewish population of the city was exterminated during the Second World War, those who had remained, their ranks swelled by others fleeing former Nazi-occupied countries in Eastern Europe, had been able to regain control of the centuries-old diamond trade.

In the popular European imagination, diamonds remain inextricably linked with the Jews. When I’d told a group of Julio’s colleagues in Brussels my plans for a story on the Indian community’s role in the trade, they’d expressed surprise. Diamonds? Wasn’t that a Jewish fiefdom?

Once upon a time, it had been. But today it is the Mehtas and the Shahs rather than the Epsteins and Finkelszteins who rule Hoveniersstraat. Indians have come to control almost three-quarters of Antwerp’s diamond industry, a figure that had been associated with the Jews only a few decades ago.

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Rough Cut: Nearly all the world’s diamonds-legal or not-pass through this one Indian city – by Jason Miklian (Foreign Policy Magazine – January 2, 2013)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

SURAT, India — The Gujarat Mail is just another red-eye train. Twelve powder-blue passenger cars crisscrossing, like so many hundreds of others, India’s northwestern breadbasket through the dark of night. At five minutes past two, the Mail begins its four-hour journey, lumbering south from Surat to Mumbai. Inside, the third-class cabins are equal parts scurrying roaches and dangling unwashed feet; fading monsoon rains that bleed through the iron-barred windows grant only fleeting mercies.

A few hundred unwilling insomniacs are sandwiched together, helplessly sweating on filthy vinyl benches as the shrieking of the rails splinters dreams along every gentle bend. In this part of the world, it’s an utterly unexceptional journey.

Aside from the $25 million or so in freshly polished diamonds on board, that is. The grungy wagons are filled with dozens of diamond mules, each man secretly carrying tens of thousands of dollars of stones inside custom-made tank tops with hidden stomach pouches.

Everyone sleeps with one eye open. Despite their attempts at traveling incognito, the nervous paces of the conductor — and the fact that the doors are bolted from the outside for the entirety of the trip — belie the false sense of ease. Altogether, the mules on this sweltering, tense train trip shuttle almost every single diamond sold in the world today.

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Lab-grown diamonds set to fill projected deficit as mined production declines – by Zandile Mavuso (Mining Weekly – September 18, 2015)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Technological developments that enable manufacturers to produce grown diamonds have presented the industry with a significant growth opportunity, with a noticeable influence on the economy and the diamond value chain, as researchers predict the demand for grown diamonds to double in the next ten years.

This is because, in addition to the jewellery industry, manufacturing and energy companies also use grown diamonds. Singapore-based grown diamonds manufacturer IIa Technologies (pronounced ‘2a Technologies) says this is a result of the projected decline of mined diamond supply, as the quality levels of mined diamonds are unpredictable for high-technology applications; further, almost all of the mined diamond production is absorbed by the gems and jewellery industry.

Owing to this, grown diamonds are filling an important gap in the diamond industry as a new source of raw material.

Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Grown Diamond Impact 2050’ report, published last year, indicates that mined diamonds are a finite resource, considering the extreme and rare occurrence of the natural surroundings in which they are formed. Therefore, the sustainability of the mined diamond industry as a primary source for the industry is declining.

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AUDIO: [De Beers and Attawapiskat] After the Last River screens at Bay Street Film Festival in Thunder Bay (CBC News Thunder Bay – September 10, 2015)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Movie highlights relationship between First Nation and mining company in northern Ontario

The Bay Street Film Festival kicks off Thursday through Sunday in Thunder Bay. One highly-anticipated film screens Thursday evening after receiving a great deal of attention during production.

After the Last River tells the story of the Attawapiskat First Nation’s experience with the nearby De Beers diamond mining company in northern Ontario.

The small community near James Bay garnered international attention for its’ social issues through the grassroots Idle No More campaign.

Vicki Lean, the film’s director, said there’s not enough discussion about how mining companies and small communities can impact each other.

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[Zimbabwe Diamonds] The tragic saga of Marange (Zimbabwe Independent – September 4, 2015)

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/

In 2000, a small geological survey team from De Beers Ltd, the largest diamond mining company in the world and a global top 500 enterprise, moved into a camp on the banks of the Save river. They secured an Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) over a large area and began to probe for raw diamonds. They found ample evidence of diamonds and sent loads of soil to Johannesburg, South Africa, for analysis but after six years decided that the qualities of the stones on site were not good enough to warrant commercial exploitation.

Eddie Cross

In London another company, African Consolidated Resources (ACR), formed by a group of Zimbabweans, watched the developments very carefully. When De Beers failed to renew their EPO over the area, they moved very quickly to take up the EPO and registered claims over 3 800 hectares of land that they identified as having the most potential.

Under the guidance of an experienced Australian geologist, the company cut deep trenches across the site and in a matter of weeks discovered gem quality stones. Although less than 20% of all the stones recovered were in this category, they felt that it was commercially viable because of the low cost of extraction.

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Cameroon involved in Central Africa ‘blood diamond’ trade: U.N. experts – by Louis Charbanneau (Reuters U.S. – September 1, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

UNITED NATIONS – Illicit trafficking of diamonds from Central African Republic into neighboring Cameroon is helping finance the continuation of a nearly three-year conflict, an expert panel that monitors U.N. sanctions said in a confidential report.

Central African Republic (CAR) descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering reprisals by “anti-balaka” Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition of the landlocked country.

Although rival armed groups agreed to a peace accord in May, the conflict has continued at a lower intensity, and a transitional government has been unable to assert its authority over all of the vast, mineral-rich territory.

The export of diamonds from CAR was banned in May 2013 by the Kimberley Process, which represents 81 countries, including the United States, the European Union, Russia, China and all major diamond-producing nations. The group was formed to prevent so-called blood diamonds from funding conflicts.

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Want to Make a Diamond in Just 10 Weeks? Use a Microwave – by Hannah Murphy, Thomas Biesheuvel and Sonja Elmquist (Bloomberg Businessweek – August 27, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Microwaved stones—no dirty mines or bloody conflicts—might be a girl’s next-best friend

The 2.62-carat diamond Calvin Mills bought his fiancée in November is a stunner. Pear-shaped and canary-yellow, the gem cost $22,000. A bargain. Mills, the chief executive officer of CMC Technology Consulting in Baton Rouge, La., says he could have spent tens of thousands more on a comparably sized diamond mined out of the earth, but his came from a lab.

“I got more diamond for less money,” says the former Southern University football player, who proposed last year at halftime during one of his alma mater’s games at the Superdome in New Orleans.

While man-made gems make up just a fraction of the $80 billion global diamond market, demand is increasing as buyers look for stones that are cheaper—and free of ethical taint. Human-rights groups, with help from Hollywood, have popularized the term “blood diamonds” to call attention to the role diamond mining has played in fueling conflicts in Africa.

Unlike imitation diamonds such as cubic zirconia, stones that are “grown” (the nascent industry’s preferred term) in labs have the same physical characteristics and chemical makeup as the real thing.

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Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Diamond Mines – by Aryn Baker (Time Magazine – August 27, 2015)

http://time.com/

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost all diamond mining is done by hand. It’s a labor-intensive process that requires hauling away layers of dirt and rock, sometimes 50 feet deep, to expose ancient beds of gravel where the crystals are found. Miners then wash and sift that gravel one shovelful at a time in search of tiny glints of light that might be a diamond.

If they are lucky, a peppercorn-size crystal could fetch them a few dollars, once the mine owner gets his take. In New York’s diamond district such a gem, cut and polished, would be worth several hundred dollars.

Lynsey Addario and I journeyed to the heart of Congo’s diamond mining district in August to report on an $81.4 billion industry that links the miners of Tshikapa with the glittering salesrooms of the world’s jewelry retailers.

It was an arduous trip, one that required an internal flight on an airline that has been blacklisted by the European Union for its shaky safety record, followed by long 4×4 drives on red dirt tracks down to the mining sites.

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