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Diamonds – Mining, Lab-Grown and Conflict/Blood

Lab Grown Diamonds: The Choice for an Ethical Future – by Megan Taylor (Viva Glam Magazine – April 15, 2024)

While lab grown gems have been around since the 1970s, they weren’t popularized in the diamond industry until the early 21st century. People are becoming more conscious of the ethics behind how traditional diamonds are mined. As a result, lab grown diamonds attract enthusiasts because they present an ethical option that aligns with contemporary consumer values.

Learn about the issues with the natural diamond mining industry and how choosing lab made gems is a more ethical choice for your next piece of jewelry.

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Is this the right vision for the NWT’s economy? – by Ollie Williams (Cabin Radio – April 13, 2024)

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It’s been a big week for discussion of the Northwest Territories’ economy. It might be about 15 years overdue.

Economist Graeme Clinton, who lives in Yellowknife, started the week by telling city council an “economic cliff” is coming – and there seems to be no plan.

He was referring to the closure of the NWT’s three active diamond mines, which currently power thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The first of the three to close will do so in just over 18 months’ time. Financially, diamond mining is the most important industry the territory has. There’s nothing on the radar that comes close to matching it for job creation and profit.

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Should alarm bells be louder for the NWT’s post-diamonds future? – by Ollie Williams (Cabin Radio – April 8, 2024)

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“The idea is not to be alarmist, but we also have to face some facts.” The Northwest Territories is about to start losing the diamond mines that drive a huge chunk of its employment and revenue. Yellowknife economist Graeme Clinton doesn’t think the territory and its residents necessarily understand that yet.

“I’m not sure if people get it,” he told Cabin Radio. In an attempt to change that, he has produced a paper – backed by the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, the mining industry body for the North – and will present some findings to Yellowknife City Council on Monday.

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Are diamonds really ‘forever’? – by Erin Blakemore (National Geographic – March 21, 2024)

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Thanks to a modern marketing campaign, the not-really-rare gem became the iconic stone for eternal love.

When Gladys Babson Hannaford visited Florida State University in 1960, her lectures weren’t exactly part of the curriculum—and Hannaford, also known as the “Diamond Lady,” wasn’t your ordinary teacher. A diamond “expert” who gave hundreds of “educational” talks on the gems annually, Hannaford was actually employed by an ad agency with a simple, if ambitious, mission: Make American women want diamonds.

Diamonds aren’t rare, and their prices were set by at the time by the ad agency’s glittering client, global diamond conglomerate De Beers. Nor were diamond engagement rings a historic tradition in the U.S. Yet Hannaford preached that diamonds were precious gems with important emotional and historical resonance. “The enduring quality of a diamond is associated with an enduring love,” she told students, encouraging her female listeners to demand diamond rings from their future fiancés.

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Russia and West join forces to tackle trade in ‘blood diamonds’ despite feud over Moscow’s diamonds – by Edith M. Lederer (Associated Press – April 4, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its Western allies are feuding with Russia over its diamond production, but they joined forces Wednesday to keep supporting the Kimberley Process, which aims to eliminate the trade in “blood diamonds” that helped fuel devastating conflicts in Africa.

At a U.N. General Assembly meeting, its 193 member nations adopted a resolution by consensus recognizing that the Kimberley Process, which certifies rough diamond exports, “contributes to the prevention of conflicts fueled by diamonds” and helps the Security Council implement sanctions on the trade in conflict diamonds.

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Renard Diamond Mine to Be Repurposed for Lithium – by Leah Meirovich (Rapaport Magazine – April 4, 2024)

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Winsome Resources has signed an agreement to acquire the Renard diamond mine and its infrastructure, with plans to convert it into a processing facility for its Adina Lithium project. Subject to approval by a Quebec Court, Winsome will pay Renard owner Stornoway Diamonds a total of CAD 52 million ($38.5 million) in cash, shares in the company, or a combination of both, it said Wednesday.

The lithium miner will have until September 30 to gain approval, with the option to extend to February 28, 2025. Winsome will not assume any of Stornoway’s financial obligations other than mine rehabilitation, it noted. Stornoway will keep any remaining diamond inventory and equipment directly associated with diamond mining.

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Like Jewels, Will Travel – by Amy Elliot (New York Times – April 2, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Gem- and jewelry-themed tours and excursions mix treasure hunting with adventure and cultural experiences.

Last year, when Roberto Ruiz visited the Carbonera mine in Querétaro, Mexico, he cracked open a grapefruit-size piece of rhyolite with a hammer. When he looked inside, “it was like finding a fire fossil,” he said during a recent phone interview from his home in San Antonio. Inside was an orangey-red fire opal that he likened to a flame, forever preserved in the sphere of igneous rock.

Mr. Ruiz and his wife, Erika Rodriguez, are among the few people who have traveled to the mine, a desolate spot located in Carbonera in central Mexico, a destination that’s well off the beaten tourist track, some 20 miles from the nearest city.

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Canada’s mild winter disrupts key ice road to remote Arctic diamond mines – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) – An unusually warm winter in Canada this year has delayed the opening of a 400-kilometer (250-mile) ice road that is rebuilt every year as the main conduit for Rio Tinto, Burgundy Mines, and De Beers to access their diamond mines in the remote Arctic region.

The Winter Road, which serves the region accessible only by air for 10 months of the year, opened with a two-week delay in the middle of February, disrupting movement of goods along the ice road built over 64 frozen lakes.

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Signet Says Shoppers Getting Wiser on Falling Lab-Grown Prices – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – March 21, 2024)

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Deep discounting by independent jewelry, especially on lab-grown, impacted Signet’s average transaction value in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended February 3, Drosos explained.

The retailer’s sales fell 6% year on year to $2.5 billion during the period, it reported Wednesday. The average transaction value slipped 0.6% in North America and slumped 10% in other regions as the jeweler sold some of its prestige watch locations.

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G7 Sanctions Will Harm Botswana’s Diamond Development, Officials Say – Avi Krawitz (Rapaport Magazine – March 20, 2024)

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The Group of Seven (G7) import restrictions targeting Russian diamonds will have a detrimental impact on Botswana’s diamond trade and may reverse the gains the country has made in recent years, government officials told Rapaport News.

The proposal to create a single-node location through which all diamonds should pass to verify G7 compliance would be a logistical nightmare for producer countries, Lefoko Moagi, Botswana’s minister of mineral resources, green technology, and energy security, said in an interview. “It creates added time in terms of processing our diamonds and it affects our beneficiation trajectory,” Moagi explained. “This may bring about added costs and unintended consequences that will affect the producer countries.”

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Synthetic Diamonds in the Spotlight – by Avi Krawitz (Rapaport Magazine – March 21, 2024)

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For the ring finger, for every finger, I put them everywhere… diamonds, diamonds, diamonds, diamonds,” sings a diverse and strikingly beautiful group of models, actors, and fashion influencers to jazzy music and the lyric “love and happiness” in the background on repeat.

Love and happiness are never enough, continues the advertisement, and “neither is one diamond” is its underlying message. “A girl’s best friend?” asks Pamela Anderson, and “diamonds are for everyone” and “for all the right reasons,” comes the answer, before Vogue magazine’s iconic creative director at large Grace Coddington concludes, “Diamonds for all,” and the tagline reveals: “Pandora: lab-grown diamonds.”

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Ice Cold: Exploring The Unique Relationship Between Hip Hop And Jewelry – Josh Wilson (Forbes Magazine – July 24, 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/

What goes through your mind when you see some of hip-hop’s heavy hitters sporting exorbitant jewelry everywhere they go? Do you think they’re just living their best life, or they’re being irresponsible with their money?

The world of hip-hop is unique in many ways. It is one of the most expressive art forms available today. It’s common, expected even, to see some of the biggest names in the genre donning expensive diamonds, gold studs, rings, bracelets, grills, and watches. And with shows like Youtube docuseries, “Ice Cold,” where stars like Migos, A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, and French Montana show off their bling, it seems they’re clamoring for every opportunity to exhibit their collections.

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Four Questions the US Must Answer on Diamond Sanctions – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – March 10, 2024)

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A broader US ban on Russian diamonds went into effect on March 1, but uncertainty remains about key details.

Sanctions on Russian diamonds and diamond jewelry went into effect on March 1 across Group of Seven (G7) nations, expanding the ban to 1-carat and larger polished stones manufactured in a third country from Russian rough. Previously, goods “substantially transformed” (i.e., manufactured) in countries such as India were technically legal in the US. The US and other member countries have released information on how enforcement will work, but many questions remain.

US Customs and Border Protection has ordered importers to use a self-certification statement declaring that the diamonds are not Russian. This is likely a temporary measure while US authorities devise a way to enforce the rules.

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Diamond producers warn of pitfalls in G7’s Russia gem ban – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – February 28, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) issued an open letter on Wednesday calling on the G7 nations and the European Union to rethink the potentially “irreparable” market outcomes of its ban on Russia-produced diamonds.

Russia is the biggest global supplier of uncut diamonds by volume. The international community has imposed new sanctions targeting Russian diamond transactions as part of a wider strategy aimed at reducing Moscow’s income streams, which support its military actions in Ukraine.

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What to expect in 2024 after diamond sector’s price plunge – by Paul Zimnisky (Mining.com – February 25, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

It’s been a tough ride for the diamonds sector since rough prices hit an all-time high in the first quarter of 2022. Last year rough prices fell 15-20% according to the Zimnisky Global Rough Diamond Price Index. Prices are now down about 25% from their early 2022 high.

So what happened to cause prices to tumble? The pandemic years brought generational volatility to diamond supply. In 2020, production dipped to the lowest levels since the 1990s. A recovery in 2021 through 2023 ensued. However, the new “normal” for output is still some 15-30 million carats below pre-2020 levels.

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