NEWS - Gemstones & Jewellery
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New tanzanite treatment9th Jun 2008
The American Gem Trade Association Gemological Testing Center (AGTA-GTC) and American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) emphasized that any treatment used to modify the color of a gem should be disclosed. The organizations said they had received a number of faceted tanzanite samples recently in New York that were determined to have been coated. Evan Caplan of Omi Gems Inc. sent samples to several labs after a light re-polishing of a few stones resulted in a noticeable loss of color.Source: Diamonds.net
Lab-grown diamonds9th Jun 2008
The presidents of CIBJO (The World Jewellery Confederation), the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) have clarified their stance on terminology references for laboratory created, gem-quality diamonds.According to the new IDC rules, gem quality diamonds created in a laboratory or factory can be described as: “synthetic”, “laboratory-grown”, “laboratory-created" or “man-made”, and the descriptor must always be followed by the word “diamond” or “diamonds.” Under no circumstances can the term "cultured" be used to describe gem-quality synthetic diamonds. At present, CIBJO’s Diamond Blue Book only allows the descriptor “synthetic” to describe gem-quality synthetic diamonds.
Source: Diamonds.net
Rapaport diamond price increases9th Jun 2008
Rap takes heat over price list increasesBy Teresa Novellino
New York—At the end of a presentation on the state of the diamond market, held on May 29 during the jewelry shows in Las Vegas, Rapaport Group Chairman Martin Rapaport ended up on the hot seat over a 25 percent increase in stone prices on his price list.
Several members of the packed ballroom at the Venetian hotel said the price increases, which occurred just before the Las Vegas jewelry shows, have created confusion in the market among dealers and buyers worldwide who rely on the list for diamond transactions.
"By doing it the way you're doing it, you freeze the market," one audience member griped, adding that if there were increases to the list, they shouldn't have been across the board. Others suggested that if changes had to be made, they should have been made gradually, or only for certain diamond grades or sizes.
Rapaport said he was sorry if people didn't like what he called a price adjustment, but he defended his decision, insisting that the list reflected the prices that were actually being paid in the market, and that the list is strictly his opinion and meant to provide guidance.
"Prices are not set by Rapaport," he said. "They're set by buyers and sellers. The fact of the matter is we're living in a difficult time. I didn't want to be sitting here at the show knowing prices [on the list] were below what was happening in the market."
He said that diamond buyers who didn't want the prices on the list should discard the list altogether, or tell suppliers they won't pay and walk away—a suggestion that was scoffed at by buyers who said they have long-term relationships.
Earlier in his presentation, Rapaport warned that the middle class in India and China would create more competition for U.S. retailers who will have to compete with jewelers in fast-growing markets for diamonds. That competition will be coupled with inflation and speculation in the diamond market, meaning that external forces will have a greater influence on jewelers than local ones.
Worldwide, demand for the largest stones and small inexpensive goods remain strong, Rapaport said, but the United States is over-inventoried in middle-quality goods, and middle-income consumers will shift toward less expensive goods.
"Middle America will go to Wal-Mart Stores Inc." for their diamonds, he said.
Branding will continue to have a big impact on the market globally, he said, mentioning De Beers Group' Forevermark brand specifically.
He suggested that the best way to get through tough economic times is to be flexible, and focused on profits versus prices.
30ct Diamond Thong9th Apr 2008
A diamond thong worth $122 000 was the highlight of a lingerie fashion show in Singapore last week.The Triumph Luxurious Diamond Thong had 518 brilliant-cut diamonds, totalling 30 carats, studded into the front of a black lace thong in a floral pattern. The skimpy underwear that left little to the imagination also had 27 white gold tassels hanging off it.
Danielle Luminita, a brunette model from Romania, was carried down the runway on the shoulders of two male models wearing only the diamond thong. "It is very comfortable, it's not heavy or scratchy or anything," Luminita told Reuters backstage.
A spokesperson for Triumph International, the lingerie company that commissioned the thong, said that the thong would be dry cleaned before going on display. "It's a signature piece, obviously we aren't going to sell it," she said.
Source: Reuters
70ct yellow diamond sold26th Mar 2008
Graff Sells 70Ct Diamond for $11MHigh-end jeweler Laurence Graff sold a 70.12 carats yellow diamond for $11 million (EUR 7 million) over the weekend, the company said.
The sale was made to an undisclosed European buyer at the Tefaf arts & antiques fair in Maastricht, Netherlands on Saturday. The stone valued at $156,874 per carat.
A spokesperson for Graff described the diamond as an emerald cut fancy intense yellow diamond weighing 70.12 carats set in platinum ring with two white diamonds weighing 1.8 carats.
Graff''s managing director, Francois Graff, said the sale was a reflection of investor preference for real assets at the moment.
"There's a lot of fear in the financial markets at the moment. We're seeing a flight to real assets," he said in an email.
Source: Avi Krawitz, Diamonds.net
Letseng diamond sales up 81%7th Feb 2008
Gem Diamonds Acquisitions Pay-off in 2007Letseng Sales +81%
Gem Diamonds claimed its acquisition spree in 2007 was already paying off as production rose at most of its operations.
The company spent some $404 million on acquisitions in 2007, most notably on Kimberley Diamond Company (KDC) in Australia, and including operations in Botswana, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC.)
The strongest performance for the year, however, came from Gem Diamonds’ flagship Letseng mine in Lesotho, where sales grew 81 percent to $152 million. Production at the mine increased 35 percent to 73,916 carats for the year, the company determined.
Letseng, which is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent by the Lesotho Government, produced five diamonds greater than 100 carats during the year, including the 493-carat Letseng Legacy which sold for $10.4 million.
The company also reported that it sold 45 carats of diamonds for $3.1 million, or $68,000 per carat, at its January 2008 Letseng tender, which included a 26 carat pink diamond going for $2.6 million.
Gem said it would be ready to start commission of a second plant at Letseng in the first quarter of 2008, which would reach full capacity in the second quarter.
Ellendale Mine
Following the completion of its Kimberley acquisition in November, Gem's first tender of diamonds from the Ellendale mine, yielded $14 million from 63,500 carats, or $220 per carat.
During the second half of calendar 2007 -- 254,657 carats of diamonds were mined at Ellendale. KDC had reported production of 378,026 carats for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007.
Cempaka Mine
Gem’s Indonesia-based Cempaka alluvial channel, which it gained from its acquisition of BDI Mining in May, produced 14,594 carats in the second half of 2007, and 23,034 carats during the full year.
Gem, which owns 80 percent of Cempaka, revised the sales channel for the project and held its first tender from the property in January 2008, selling approximately 15,000 for $4.96 million, or $331 per carat.
DRC Projects
The company also sold its first diamonds from the Mbelenge Mine in the DRC, a parcel of 2,986 carats for $247,838, or $83 per carat. During 2007, Gem also sold three parcels totaling 16,652 carats for $1.46 million, or $88 per carat, from its Lubembe Project in the DRC.
Gem plans to start trial mining at its third DRC project, the Longatshimo Project in the third quarter of 2008.
Diamond exploration projects are also underway in Angola, Botswana, and the Central African Republic.
CEO Clifford Elphick said the company was profitable and had a positive cash flow moving into 2008.
“Operations have generally performed ahead of expectations and problem areas are being addressed,” Elphick said. “We are examining how to capture additional margin for the company over the complete range of exceptional diamonds that the mines under our control produce.”
Shares of Gem Diamonds were up 5.9 percent to GBP 951.50 in early Monday afternoon trade in London.
Source: Avi Krawitz, Rapaport
Russia's most expensive diamond7th Feb 2008
Kristall Displays Russia’s 'Most Expensive Diamond'Russia's diamond manufacturer Kristall will announce the price of a 45.5 carat jewel at the JUNWEX St. Petersburg 2008 jewelry exhibition this week.
Billed as the “most expensive diamond ever manufactured by a Russian cutter,” Kristall put the stone up for display at the JUNWEX exhibition which runs from February 6 to 10, news agency Itar-Tass reported.
The jewel was cut from a 98.08 carat stone mined at the Aikhal deposit in Yakutia, which Kristall bought from ALROSA, a source told Itar-Tass, adding that several jewels were made from the diamond.
The polished stone is “practically colorless and has a very high degree of purity,” the source said.
Source: Avi Krawitz, Rapaport
Uncovering the16th Oct 2007
Intrepid Times reporter Melody Brandon was taken on a crook’s tour of Potchefstroom in a quest to find out if the ‘world’s biggest diamond’ was real — or a hoax.When Brett Jolly called me to offer me the “scoop of a lifetime”, I was thrilled — I would get to watch and document the testing of the eighth wonder of the world.
I was wrong. Horribly wrong.
I receive the call at 8.30am on Thursday: “Be at the SA Diamond Centre in Commissioner Street by 9.30am — no photographers,” Brett Jolly informs me.
Should this be the real thing, I and a journalist from Associated Press would be the only two people to document this incredible event.
At the rendezvous point, Jolly tells me that we are going to the mine where the stone was found.
Armed with a camera, I jump into Jolly’s car. But I start feeling a little uneasy: Where exactly is this mine? I have no idea. Where is the AP journalist?
“He will meet us there,” Jolly tells me.
Along the way Jolly gets a call — four BMWs with four men in each are following Andre Harding, the man taking us to the diamond.
Jolly calls a contact to have the licence plate of one the alleged vehicle’s checked. Apparently it doesn’t exist.
“It’s either an attempted heist, or government agents,” says a voice over the hands-free kit. “If this guy is still being followed he should drive straight to a police station or into a busy street.”
My stomach is in knots. What have I gotten myself into?
We arrive in Potchefstroom, a good 100km out of Johannesburg, at about 10.30am.
I meet Harding for the first time as he runs out of a Kentucky outlet in the middle of Potch.
Jumping into Jolly’s car he tells us how scared he is: “The diamond industry is one of the most crooked you can come across.”
He says this gravely, and then tells us how he managed to “lose the guys tailing him”.
But the cloak and dagger drama doesn’t end there — it is just beginning.
We drive up and down an obscure piece of road for about 20 minutes to make sure we are not being followed.
Finally Jolly and Harding explain the plan.
Jolly has a diamond tester with him, as does Harding. We are going to drop Harding off at the mine. He is going to get “Oom Tienie”, the miner who found the stone.
Jolly and I must wait in Potchefstroom and Harding will call us when they are ready.
For “security reasons” I am blindfolded for part of the journey to the ‘farm’, as the mine is known. The knot in my gut tightens.
We drop off Harding on the side of the road in what seems to be the middle of nowhere.
Jolly and I then continue on to Potchefstroom. I can sense that Jolly is anxious to get this over.
He hasn’t seen the stone himself.
Oom Tienie and Harding, who mine the land, each have a 40percent stake in the stone. Jolly and an unknown person each have a 10percent stake.
“This thing has already taken up a lot of time and cost me a lot of money,” Jolly tells me.
If the initial tests show that it is a diamond, no-one seems to know what the next step is from there.
Jolly is a businessman and not too familiar with the processes involved in diamond mining.
Lunch is long and arduous: as much as I love visiting small towns in the middle of nowhere, I have a deadline to meet.
Eventually, Harding arrives.
There is a problem.
He tells us Oom Tienie found two photographers on the mine — he broke their cameras and threw out their memory sticks, and is now apparently too nervous to have me see the stone.
As Jolly tries to allay Harding’s fears, my patience is starting to wear thin.
“We are just going to test quickly. She will take a couple of pictures and we are done. I need to know today if this is a diamond or not,” Jolly says.
Placated, for the moment, Harding gives Jolly directions to a spot on the road where where we will test the stone.
Harding tells us we must stop parallel to each other, and then I will get to have a look at the stone and take photographs.
“The problem is,” Harding explains to me, “that the safe is welded into my car.
“Two keys have to open the safe simultaneously; you only have three minutes to look at it before the safe closes, and if the diamond is not in the safe by the time the safe closes, an alarm goes off and all hell breaks loose.”
Driving back to the mine for the second time, I take stock of the day’s events.
First, Harding was being followed by four BMWs, then there were photographers on the mine and Oom Tienie — who is apparently 75 — broke their cameras and destroyed their memory sticks. Now there is a hi-tech safe welded into a car?
The whole thing starts to feel like a bad dream.
We finally meet Harding on the side of the road. I jump out with the camera and get into the passenger side, while Jolly stands guard on the driver’s side.
I start taking pictures of Harding using his tester. It flashes red on “diamond”. I ask him to use Jolly’s tester too. Agitated and shaking, he tells me that it doesn’t work.
A family in a 4x4 drive past, sending Harding into a tailspin.
“This is too dangerous, I have to go now,” he yells.
I ask him if I can have a quick look at the stone.
“It’s very light for a diamond...” before I finish the sentence he snatches it out of my hand, and speeds off.
“Follow me,” he yells.
Jolly seems to be as confused as I am. The whole thing is bizarre.
I keep Harding’s tester and on closer inspection discover that he hadn’t taken the cap off.
“The cap wasn’t off. How could it register that it is a diamond?” I ask Jolly.
We figure out that Harding had it on manual mode, allowing him to preset the tester to flash “diamond” on the indicator.
Jolly starts driving towards Potch again. We see Harding’s car and stop.
At this point my patience runs out: “Either you take the stone out and test it with both testers, or I will write that this whole thing is a hoax,” I tell an aggressive Harding, who pales when I reveal I knew he left the cap on the tester.
Five minutes later the bad dream turns into an unholy nightmare.
Jolly, now fuming mad that he might have been scammed, takes me to the mine, to take photographs of the area.
Harding follows us and the two men have a screaming match.
Accusations fly, lawsuits are threatened and bizarre explanations are offered.
At this point I’m pretty sure I will either be a witness to a homicide, or the victim of one.
I am standing in the middle of nowhere and have just told a man that I know he is lying about having found the world’s largest diamond.
What am I thinking? As anyone would do in such a situation, I start walking away.
I will have to hitch back to Johannesburg, I think to myself. Maybe I should hide in the grass for a while.
Nearly hysterical, I call my news editor and try to explain the day’s events — a garbled cry for help.
“Where are you?” he asks.
About five kilometres from a rock, standing under a tree in the middle of nowhere — I have absolutely no idea!
But eventually, the fight between Jolly and Harding comes to an end and my news editor tells Jolly to bring me back to Johannesburg immediately.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? The “world’s largest” was my worst nightmare.
Source: The Times, Melody Brandon
