Diamond Review Africa

Trans Atlantic Gem Sales recently announced that it has made a strong start to 2024 with around 75 per cent of products sold at the January tender in Dubai! The company revealed that despite challenging market conditions, it sees price improvements achieved in most categories... Pic show courtesy Trans Atlantic Gem Sales Read more: https://lnkd.in/dqmEnVP5 #transatlanticgemsales; #diamondreviewafrica

Angola is projected to produce 17.53 million carats by 2027, according to the country’s state-owned diamond company, Endiama. Second, data collected by Rough & Polished at the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town showed that revenues are also expected to increase to $2.62 billion in the same year. At least 24 mines are currently producing diamonds in Angola. The country recently opened the Luele diamond mine, which is expected to dislodge Catoca as Angola’s largest diamond mine. Luele kimberlite has an ore quantity of 647 million tonnes which will result in the production of 628 million carats. The mine is projected to run from 2023 to 2083. Endiama said Angola produced about 9.8 million carats of rough diamonds in 2023 despite the global economic downturn. It realised $1.5 billion in revenue from the diamonds sold last year... Read more: https://lnkd.in/dCcd9YGm Edited by Rough Polished; Pic show Courtesy Catoca Mining

De Beers has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Angola’s National Mineral Resource Agency, Angola’s state-owned diamond company, Endiama, and Angola’s state-owned diamond trading company, Sodiam. The signing of the MoU, which took place at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa, seeks to advance Angola’s diamond sector with a focus on increasing diamond production, supporting the growth of alluvial diamond mining, and enhancing social development opportunities for the benefit of Angola’s citizens. Addressing delegates after the signing ceremony, De Beers chief executive Al Cook said that the MoU extends the group’s partnership with Angola following the signing of two Mineral Investment Contracts (MICs) in 2022 for licence areas in north-eastern Angola, where exploration activities are now underway. Pic show: Al Cook and Ganga Júnior , De Beers and Endiama chief executive; Read more: https://lnkd.in/dbCSbC58

Botswana Diamonds’ latest update on its Marsfontein and Thorny River projects in South Africa reveals the discovery of a significant kimberlite blow, detected through drilling and geophysics. This blow is estimated to have occurred deep below the surface, at a remarkable distance ranging from five to 10 metres, reaching approximately 13 metres. The blow was determined to be a new kimberlite. Botswana Diamonds also said mining operations at Marsfontein will continue while the business waits for the necessary approvals to begin operations at Thorny River. “As a proof-of-concept project, Marsfontein is delivering diamond recoveries and values above expectations, as previously reported last month. This augurs well for Thorny River,” said company chairperson John Teeling... Read more: https://lnkd.in/evCA7j8V Pic: Thorny-River-diamond-mine

De Beers said it will no longer sell lab grown engagement rings, after a three-month trial reinforced its belief that they are “unsustainable” as a commercial proposition. “Retailers already need to double the number of LGD carats sold every two years just to maintain a flat absolute gross profit,” the company said. Lightbox, the De Beers lab grown division, dipped its toe into the bridal market in June, with its first ever lab grown engagement rings, carrying the tag line “Because great chemistry deserves great chemistry”.   Most were priced around the $2,500 mark, from a 0.3-ct tw three-stone ring priced at $500 to a $5,000 two-carat round brilliant solitaire engagement ring with a stone graded as colorless/VVS+. Lightbox CEO Antoine Borde said at the time that the company was running a small in-market test of consumer preferences in the lab grown diamond engagement ring segment. He said: “We are undertaking the test now to better understand more about consumer interest in lab-grown diamond engagement rings, and to better understand how Lightbox’s offering of clear information and accessible prices resonates in this segment.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eQ88QNKt Pic: A model wearing one of the Lightbox lab-grown diamond rings. courtesy Lightbox (De Beers)

Longtime industry editor Rob Bates has released a third book in his jewelry mystery fiction series.  The novel, “Slay It With A Diamond,” is the latest addition to Bates’ “Diamond District Mystery Series,” which follows journalist-turned-amateur-sleuth Mimi Rosen. In the new book, Mimi returns, along with other characters from the first two books, “A Murder is Forever” and “Murder is Not a Girl’s Best Friend,” in an entirely new mystery set in New York City’s 47th Street Diamond District.  In “Slay It With A Diamond,” Mimi’s father, New York City diamond dealer Max Rosen, buys a famous gemstone which is supposedly cursed. He’s not a believer in curses, until the wife of the jeweler who sold him the gem turns up dead. “My books all examine different aspects of the diamond industry, and this one zeroes in on luxury and the mindset behind it,” said Bates.  “It started with the idea that people will believe that a gemstone is cursed, but they would scoff if you talked about a cursed paper towel. That’s because people perceive gemstones as special and packed with meaning. And that led me to consider why people are so attracted to diamonds and other luxury objects, and the psychological need that they fill...” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eETUE979 #RobBates

Diamond processor and trader HB Antwerp said on Monday it had removed one of its three co-founders from management following differences over strategy, a development that comes amid a pending sales pact with major producer Botswana. Oded Mansori, who co-founded HB Antwerp in 2020 with partners Shai de Toledo and Rafael Papismedov, said he was taking them to court over his removal. “On September 1, HB terminated Mr Oded Mansori’s management role in all the HB Companies,” the Belgian company said in a statement, citing a “sharp difference in strategic vision and approaches to business”. The government of Botswana, the world’s No. 1 diamond producer by value, said in March that it had agreed to buy a 24% stake in HB Antwerp. As part of the deal, state-owned Okavango Diamond Company would supply HB with an undisclosed quantity of rough diamonds for five years. The deal is yet to be signed. Mansori, a long-time diamond dealer, said in a separate statement that he was “determined to defend his vision and to fight for the wellbeing and the future of HB,” and that “a legal process is currently underway in court.” Mansori, who declined to comment further, said he was still a shareholder in the company... Read more: https://lnkd.in/e7t7S7xa Credit: HB Antwerp

Diamond miner De Beers Group says its intention is to secure an agreement on a five-year wage deal with trade union the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The entities have been in negotiations since March ahead of the expiry of its three-year agreement on April 30 on conditions of employment affecting about 1 500 employees in the bargaining unit at Venetia mine and De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa. In a statement on September 5, the NUM said the four-month-long wage negotiations with De Beers had collapsed and that a dispute had been declared at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). “The NUM is currently involved in a mobilisation process among its more than 1 500 members, preparing them for a protected indefinite strike. NUM members are demanding a wage increase of 9%, while De Beers is offering workers only 6%,” the union stated. “We believe a five-year agreement will provide a measure of certainty, particularly against the backdrop of the transition from openpit mining to the underground mine at Venetia mine and the recent move of our sorting and valuation business from Kimberley to Johannesburg. “As the diamond industry, we are also faced with challenging market conditions that are continuing to have an adverse impact on our business,” De Beers says... Read more: https://lnkd.in/e69nTySS

The sanctioned Russian miner Alrosa has announced has mined the largest gem-quality diamond in Russia in the past decade. The 390.7-carat diamond was mined at one of the company’s mines in the Republic of Sakha, Alrosa said in a statement. The region, commonly known as Yakutia, lies in Russia’s Far East along the Arctic Ocean. “The found diamond is a light crystal of an irregular shape, bordered by a yellow-brown halo – a combination of mass, shape and colour that is unique today,” Alrosa said. The company mined the largest gem-quality diamond in Russia in 2013, weighing 401 carats, Alrosa said. The word’s largest gem-quality diamond ever mined – the 3,106 carat Cullinan stone – was recovered in South Africa in 1905. Alrosa was last year placed under sanctions by the United States, which cut it off from its banking system and banned direct sales to the US market after Russia invaded Ukraine... Read more: https://lnkd.in/em2hWszS

India has asked the United States to release $26-million belonging to at least two Indian diamond firms frozen due to their alleged trade links with sanctioned Russian diamond major Alrosa, three Indian sources told Reuters. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury unit that oversees sanctions, froze the funds earlier this year, said two of the sources. Both are Indian government officials but declined to identify themselves or the companies citing the sensitivity of the matter. The OFAC freeze is the first known punitive measure against any Indian business since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year and subsequent Western sanctions on Russian entities. OFAC froze the funds when UAE-based units of the unspecified Indian companies tried to transfer them to buy rough diamonds. Reuters could not determine if the money was being transferred to Alrosa or another party. “The government is aware of the OFAC action and has initiated dialogue over it,” one of the Indian government sources said. “The problem was suspicion of trade links with Alrosa...” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eFV-aQQb