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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

Stornoway’s Renard mine: Quebec’s diamond in the rough looks to make history – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – November 2, 2013)

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

NEAR THE OTISH MOUNTAINS, QUE. – Matt Manson remembers being cold. And thinking about divine retribution.

It was November 2006 and the wounds were still raw from Stornoway Diamond Corp.’s unsolicited takeover of Ashton Mining, part of a $200-million play that also saw Stornoway buy Contact Diamond. As president of the newly consolidated company, Mr. Manson had just finished visiting its flagship asset — the Renard diamond project in northern Quebec — for the first time when a snowstorm closed in.

He jumped into a helicopter and the pilot flew him at low altitude two hours south to Témiscamie, an aircraft refuelling and logistics station with no permanent residents. Huddled against the side of a shed and waiting for a truck to take him to Chibougamau, he found himself completely alone.

“I’m sitting there, shivering away against the wall, getting covered in snow for about three hours and thinking ‘Here’s my punishment’,” recalls Mr. Manson, now Stornoway’s president and chief executive. “‘We went hostile and now I’m being punished. The gods were paying me [back]’.”

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Sudbury-polished diamonds heading to Australia – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 25, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Diamonds, some of them mined in the James Bay Lowlands and cut and polished in Sudbury, shared centre stage in Australia earlier this week when they were launched there by local journalists and celebrities.

Dylan Dix is group executive of Vancouver-based Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., which operates the diamond processing facility in downtown Sudbury. Dix attended the Sydney soiree at which Forevermark diamonds from the De Beers group of companies were introduced.

Crossworks Manufacturing cuts some of those diamonds for De Beers. Australia is a new market for Crossworks, said Dix, and six new luxury retailers in Sydney and Brisbane are now carrying the Forevermark diamonds.

Some of those diamonds come from De Beers Victor Mine, 90 km west of Attawapiskat. Crossworks has a deal with the Government of Ontario to process 10% of the diamonds mined at Victor in Sudbury, about $35 million of the sparklers a year.

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NEWS RELEASE: Canadian Federal Government Approves Gahcho Kué Diamond Mine Development

 YELLOWKNIFE, TORONTO and NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2013 /CNW/ – De Beers Canada and Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX: MPV, NYSE MKT: MDM) are pleased to announce that the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the Hon. Bernard Valcourt, has today approved the development of the Gahcho Kué diamond mine as recommended by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board.

Tony Guthrie, Chief Executive Officer for De Beers Canada, commented: “The Minister’s approval confirms that the plans for the development and operation of the Gahcho Kué diamond mine meet the highest standards. The new diamond mine will benefit the economy and residents of the Northwest Territories and enhance Canada’s position as a premier diamond producer.”

Federal government approval allows the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to commence processing of the applications for the Land Use Permit and Water License required to construct and operate the Gahcho Kué mine.

Patrick Evans, Mountain Province President and CEO, added: “Gahcho Kué has gone through the most comprehensive environmental review of any mining project in the Northwest Territories.

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New road connects Renard diamond mine with other “Plan Nord” jobs – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – October 2013)

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

Stornoway Diamond Corporation of Longueuil, QC is proud that its Renard Diamond Mine has been officially deemed “Quebec’s First Diamond Mine,” but the company is equally proud of one more of its achievements; its Renard Mine Road, a 97-km-long portion of a 240-km route that now links the mine with the public highway, Provincial Route 167, and the popular mining communities of Temiscamie and Chibougamau.

The new road is a two-lane, 8.5-m wide gravel passage completed two months ahead of schedule and on budget. It’s an all-season road that will now enable the company to continue developing its Renard Mine year round without delays in the delivery of machinery, supplies, or people.

In fact, the new road brings a feeling of “community” with other Quebec mining companies in central Quebec because it now “connects” the mine and its workers with a permanent road to and from the site.

Since 1996 when the property was discovered, Stornoway’s geologists and field crews have relied either on a seasonal road or air support.

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FEATURE-Goodbye London, hello Gaborone: De Beers sales head to Africa – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters U.S. – October 3, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Oct 3 (Reuters) – In a spartan office in the London headquarters of De Beers, Elliot Tannenbaum holds a cloudless stone the size and shape of a domino to the light: a rough diamond worth millions, even before it is cut and polished.

A veteran diamantaire, Tannenbaum’s family firm is one of some 80 buyers handpicked by the diamond giant to buy rough gems from its mines, under an arcane system of pre-determined allocations and regular sales meetings known as “sights”.

“I have been coming here some ten times a year for 35 years, I have missed only two or three sights. It is part of our routine,” says Tannenbaum, whose Leo Schachter group, founded in New York and now headquartered in Israel, is a major manufacturer of polished diamonds.

But this week’s sight is De Beers’ last in London. From now on, the action will be in Gaborone, dusty capital of Botswana.

The office allocated to Tannenbaum’s firm, his dedicated De Beers contacts and the black-and-yellow attache case stacked with clear plastic bags of diamonds will move south along with the whole of the company’s sales operation – 85 out of 300 London-based De Beers employees.

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A girl’s very best friend: $55 million necklace on sale in Singapore – by John O’Callaghan (Reuters India – October 4, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE – (Reuters) – For someone with $55 million to spare on an egg-sized diamond, the world’s most expensive necklace is on sale this month at a jewellery show in Singapore, reflecting Asia’s growing appetite for precious gems and expensive baubles.

Known as L’Incomparable, the necklace created by luxury jeweller Mouawad features a yellow, internally flawless diamond of more than 407 carats suspended from a rose gold setting that is studded with 90 white diamonds weighing nearly 230 carats.

“Serious interest” has been expressed by a couple of potential buyers from Asia, said Jean Nasr, managing director of Mouawad in Singapore, declining to identify their nationalities.

“People who will get something like this are looking at it from a different perspective because this is definitely an investment piece,” he told Reuters.

The necklace, whose centrepiece diamond was found by chance in a pile of mining rubble by a young girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo about 30 years ago, will be the flashiest item on offer at the Singapore JewelFest on October 11-20.

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Blood diamonds and do-gooders – by Dustin Benton (New Statesman – September 26, 2013)

http://www.newstatesman.com/

Tim Worstall on conflict minerals – good economics, bad politics.

Earlier this week, Global Witness, the organisation behind restrictions on blood diamonds, called for an EU law to restrict the use of conflict minerals. This would match a US law, called the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires companies to trace the origin of certain metals through their supply chain to ensure they don’t come from known conflict zones.

To be clear, conflict minerals are both horrible and, unfortunately, in most of our electronics. Few would defend them, but the call for a new law was immediately met by criticism. “There are times when the actions of do-gooders makes [sic] me want to kneel down and weep bitter tears of pain,” exclaimed Tim Worstall in Forbes, who wrote a riposte to the call for the new law.

This isn’t because Worstall supports conflict minerals – he doesn’t – but because he thinks that we can prevent conflict minerals from being used for 300-400 times less money. Fundamentally, this is a debate about how best to create supply chain transparency, an essential component of resource resilience.

In essence, Worstall’s solution is to regulate smelters rather than manufacturers. Because the mineral ores used to create metals have a unique “fingerprint”, they can be tested prior to smelting to ensure the fingerprint doesn’t match that of mines from known conflict areas.

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Mission Congo: how Pat Robertson raised millions on the back of a non-existent aid project – by Chris McGreal (The Guardian – September 5, 2013)

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

The televangelist claimed Operation Blessing was giving vital aid in response to the 1994 Rwandan crisis. A documentary opening at the Toronto film festival paints a less flattering picture
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One of the stranger sights of the refugee crisis that followed the 1994 Rwandan genocide was of stretcher-bearers rushing the dying to medical tents, with men running alongside reciting Bible verses to the withering patients.

The bulk of the thousands of doctors and nurses struggling to save lives – as about 40,000 people died of cholera – were volunteers for the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The Bible readers were hired by the American televangelist and former religious right presidential candidate, Pat Robertson, and his aid organisation, Operation Blessing International.

But on Robertson’s US television station, the Christian Broadcasting Network, that reality was reversed, as he raised millions of dollars from loyal followers by claiming Operation Blessing was at the forefront of the international response to the biggest refugee crisis of the decade. It’s a claim he continues to make, even though an official investigation into Robertson’s operation in Virginia accused him of “fraudulent and deceptive” claims when he was running an almost non-existent aid operation.

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Diamonds are a premier’s best friend – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – August 29, 2013)

 

http://www.northernlife.ca/

A deal benefitting a business which polishes diamonds mined at the DeBeers Victor Diamond Mine on the James Bay coast is an example of how the province works to create jobs in Northern Ontario, Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

She made the remarks during an Aug. 29 tour of Crossworks Manufacturing’s Sudbury office, which opened in 2009, and employs 35 people. Eighteen of these employees are from the Sudbury area, while the rest are originally from Vietnam.

Wynne, who is also visiting Kenora and Thunder Bay in the coming days as part of a tour of Northern Ontario, credits these jobs to a deal the province struck with De Beers to process 10 per cent of its Victor diamonds in Ontario.

“One of the things I’m determined to do as premier is to work to close the skills gap, to make sure that we provide opportunities for people in Ontario develop the skills for the businesses that are looking for those skills,” she said.

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A premier’s best friend [Sudbury diamonds] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 30, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The partnership between government and industry that resulted in a diamond processing plant in Sudbury is the model for the kind of work the Liberals are doing to ensure business thrives in Ontario, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The premier visited Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., for the second time, to kick off a northern tour in which she’s delivering a couple of messages. One is that her government’s commitment to create jobs and fuel the economy extends to all parts of Ontario, including Northern Ontario.

Another is that Wynne is premier of the entire province, not just ridings in which Liberals are elected. Under an agreement between De Beers Canada and the government of Canada, De Beers is making 10% of the annual rough diamond production from Victor Mine, in the James Bay Lowlands, available for processing in Ontario.

Crossworks was offered the opportunity by the province and the Diamond Trading Company to purchase about $35 million worth of rough stones a year and cut and polish them at the downtown Sudbury plant.

Wynne toured the plant where 35 experienced diamond cutters, the majority of them highly skilled tradespeople from Vietnam, were at work.

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Israel looks to glitter in world diamond trade – by Ari Rabinovitch (Reuters India – August 29, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

RAMAT GAN, Israel – (Reuters) – The Israel Diamond Exchange flexed its muscles this week, hosting a four-day show it hopes will strengthen its position as a major hub, and market leaders voiced optimism the struggling industry would have a strong end to the year.

Hundreds of companies crowded the world’s biggest diamond trading floor on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, where buyers, under heavy security and armed with eye loupes, ambled through rows of tables that displayed $2 billion of precious stones.

It was the largest event the exchange had held. Official figures were not made public, but Yair Sahar, president of the exchange, said sales were in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and he expected the show to provide a $2 billion boost by the end of the year.

“The eyes of the world are watching us. The mining companies, the jewelry manufacturers, they are wishing – ‘please be successful’,” Sahar said. Israel is already a key trading center and diamonds account for about 20 percent of all industrial exports. Manufacturing has dwindled, but trading has thrived, reaching an annual turnover of $25 billion.

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Crossworks inks deal with Chinese firm – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – August 29, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Craftspeople at Sudbury’s Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd. plant will soon be cutting and polishing diamonds for the world’s largest jewelry company, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd.

Crossworks president Uri Ariel has just signed a long-term supply and licensing agreement with the Chinese firm to provide Crossworks’ patented hearts and arrows ideal cut square diamond to the company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chow Tai Fook will have exclusive distribution rights to sell the uniquely cut diamonds through its extensive retail network in Greater China.
Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., a member of the HRA Group of Companies, is a Canadian company with five polishing facilities in Canada, Vietnam and Namibia. One of the Canadian plants is located in downtown Sudbury, where about 35 cutters process 10% of the diamonds mined by De Beers in the James Bay Lowlands.

Crossworks designed the square cut hearts and arrows diamond to enhance the brilliance, fire and scintillation in a square cut diamond, company spokesman Dylan Dix said in a release.

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De Beers eyes expansion to mine project near Attawapiskat (CBC News Sudbury – August 15, 2013)

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

Attawapiskat band members interested in negotiating a new Impact Benefit Agreement for the Victor Mine Extension Project.

De Beers Canada is looking into the possibility of extending its current Victor Mine project on northern Ontario’s James Bay Coast, on traditional land, 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat First Nation.

The company officially opened its existing Victor Mine site in mid-2008, after discovering the region’s lucrative kimberlite field more than two decades earlier. It was the province’s first diamond mine.

With an estimated five years remaining on that open pit diamond mine, the company has proposed the Victor Mine Extension Project.

The project is in an advanced exploration stage at the moment, meaning a final decision on whether to pursue the extension is still at least 18 months away, said Tom Ormsby, the director of external and corporate affairs at De Beers Canada.

An environmental assessment is currently underway, and core samples will be done to gauge the value of minerals in the ground.

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Biggest diamond ever found and processed in Canada unearthed near Attawapiskat – by Alex Ballingall (Toronto Star – July 26, 2013)

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.

The 35-carat sparkler will, after polishing, go on a world tour to promote Ontario diamonds.

It came from the earth, a crystallized clump of carbon blasted from the rocky soil of northern Ontario by a multinational mining company. Now that it’s in the hands of a leading Canadian diamond maker, the gem from the open pit mine near Attawapiskat is causing a stir. At 35 carats, it’s the biggest diamond ever pulled from Canadian soil that will also be cut and polished in the country.

“That’s what makes this unique,” said Tom Ormsby, director of external and corporate affairs for De Beers Canada, which operates the Victor Diamond Mine in northern Ontario, 90 km west of James Bay. “It will be valued once it’s done being cut and polished,” said Ormsby, who declined to say how much Vancouver-based diamond cutter Crossworks Manufacturing paid to process the precious gem.

The Canadian company, which has a contract to buy as much as 10 per cent of the annual diamond production from the De Beers’ Victor mine, started working on the diamond this week, said Ormsby.

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De Beers’ Victor Diamond Mine court U.S. billionaire – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 26, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Billionaire businessman Warren Buffett has a standing invitation to visit a diamond mine in Northern Ontario. Buffett, 82, has been asked to join a junket in September, in which Crossworks Manufacturing will fly possible investors and diamond buyers to De Beers’ Victor Diamond Mine.

Victor is the first Canadian diamond mine in Ontario, and De Beers’ second Canadian diamond mine. It is located in the James Bay Lowlands, 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat, so it’s safe to say Buffett has likely never visited that region.

Buffett purchased Omahabased Borsheims, one of the largest jewelers in the United States, in 1989. It’s part of his famous holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Unfortunately, Buffett isn’t available for the trip.

But Uri Ariel, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Crossworks, said the offer remains open to show Buffett around the mine that produces high-quality diamonds.

Greater Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk and representatives from Asian diamond companies, such as Chow Fai Took Jewellery Group, and Asian journalists have been invited along.

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