Gem Diamonds Limited (LSE: GEMD) is pleased to announce the recovery of a high quality 113 carat white Type II diamond, recovered at the Letšeng mine in Lesotho on 17 February 2024.
A piece of white rock next to a magnifying glass Description automatically generated
Together with the 295 carat high quality Type II white diamond recovered on 8 January 2024 and a 139 carat low quality Boart diamond recovered on 17 January 2024, the 113 carat is the third greater than 100 carat diamond recovered to date this year.
Dubai-based manufacturer Choron has signed an agreement with Storm Mountain Diamonds to cut and polish a 108.39-carat stone from the Kao mine in Lesotho.
Storm Mountain, a joint venture between Namakwa Diamonds and the Lesotho government, recovered the type IIa diamond in March. The stone is one of the largest pink diamonds ever discovered, Storm Mountain said last week.
“Storm Mountain continues to consistently deliver extraordinary diamonds, and this diamond further cements the Kao mine as the primary producer of pink diamonds globally,” said Storm Mountain board chairman Robert Cowley. “We are thrilled to enter into this agreement with Choron, and we look forward to the next chapter of this diamond’s story.”
Storm Diamonds will retain a minority share in the stone, while Choron will manufacture and market it, Choron CEO Anshul Gandhi told Rapaport News. The company has not disclosed the other terms of the partnership.
“It is a privilege for Choron to unlock the secrets within this remarkable pink diamond, and we look forward to revealing the story of this historic diamond,” said Ghandi. “Our artisans will meticulously transform this rough diamond into an array of polished diamonds that will be remembered for generations to come.”
Gem Diamonds has unearthed a 101.96-carat rough from its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, its second stone over 100 carats so far this year.
The miner discovered the gem-quality, type IIa diamond on September 28, it said Wednesday. The find follows that of a 122-carat stone on March 5.
While Letšeng had previously been known for producing high-quality rough diamonds topping the 100-carat mark, that supply has been declining. Last year, the miner retrieved only four diamonds of that magnitude, versus six in 2021 and 16 in 2020.
The lack of special-size stones has hurt the company’s revenue, with sales falling 28% year on year to $71.8 million in the first six months of 2023. The miner incurred a loss of $1 million, compared to a profit of $3.8 million during the same period in 2022.
The Baselworld fair has received much criticism in recent years, but one of the final shows before its public implosion appears to have facilitated a diamond deal that counts among the biggest in history.
Antwerp-based manufacturers Taché and Samir Gems came to the March 2018 exhibition with the exquisite Lesotho Legend, a 910-carat, type IIa diamond they had bought together from Gem Diamonds for $40 million earlier that month. At the time, jewelers such as Graff and Harry Winston dominated the big-stone market. Displaying the massive rough at the prestigious Swiss event could help drum up broader interest in the category, Taché and Samir believed.
“We felt that the market was a bit saturated between one or two players,” says Jean-Jacques Taché, managing director for sales at Taché, from his office in Tel Aviv, Israel. “So we thought, let’s bring it to Basel, let’s…showcase the [rough], and let’s see the reactions.”
Plenty of visitors wanted selfies with the stone, which came from the famous Letšeng mine in Lesotho. Some suggested buying a sliver of the piece — polished of, say, 5 to 20 carats, Taché recalls. However, “none of them were really committed at that point to enter into a venture.”
The exception was Van Cleef & Arpels, a Richemont-owned luxury brand that, Taché explains, had been somewhat pulling back from big stones in recent years.
“From the minute they saw it, [Van Cleef] started to talk about the idea that they had,” the executive adds. The timing was perfect: The luxury brand had just finished a ruby collection and was seeking a new project on which to spend a few years. “Sometimes you need a lot of things to happen at the same time in order to make it a success.”
The buying executive representing Van Cleef needed approval from Nicolas Bos, the brand’s CEO, and the Richemont team. Not long after the event, Taché, Samir and Van Cleef signed an agreement calling for the jeweler to buy the final polished. The condition was that the finished goods met the French house’s high quality criteria.
Long wait
Only this month did Van Cleef reveal the finished jewelry, more than four years after the initial pitch. The result was a unique collection of 25 Mystery Set jewels featuring 67 D-flawless diamonds. The largest is an oval, 79.35-carat stone that takes pride of place in a necklace called Atours Mystérieux, meaning “mysterious attire.” The smallest is 0.29 carats. The parties have not disclosed the polished sale price.
Taché and Samir both took heavy risks by splurging on the rough back in 2018. (Gem Diamonds publicly named Samir as the buyer: As is often the case, a miner only invoices one entity, but the purchase was really a 50:50 partnership.)
The two companies have a long-standing collaboration, having also bought the 341.9-carat Queen of Kalahari together from Lucara Diamond Corp. a few years earlier. They sold that polished to Chopard. Samir has its expertise in purchasing large rough stones; Taché specializes more in relationships with the top jewelry brands.
“We’re the most successful Jewish-Indian partnership on the market, by far,” says Taché.
They outsourced the cutting and polishing to Diamcad, an Antwerp firm that also manufactured the Lesedi La Rona for Graff. The goods went for grading at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in New York, where all the stones received Diamond Origin Reports stating that they were from the Lesotho Legend.
Van Cleef took delivery of the polished as each stone was ready between January 2019 and March 2020, Taché notes. However, Covid-19 delayed the launch, as Van Cleef had been hoping to hold roadshows.
Jean-Jacques Taché and Anjal Bhansali
Quality over size
The manufacturers agreed to include Van Cleef throughout the process, including in the planning and design. The Taché and Samir teams even traveled with Van Cleef’s Bos to Lesotho in May 2019 to experience the Letšeng mine and learn about the local community there.
The brand would accept only flawless goods, so quality became a higher priority than size. The planning process, which took about seven months in 2018, saw the parties review around 180 possible combinations of outcomes. None of them included any “monster” stones, they note.
“Instead of 67 stones, you could also have a model with probably 12 pieces only, but [it would have been] much less interesting in terms of creation,” Taché continues.
There were other complicating factors. Van Cleef tends to avoid round and heart-shaped diamonds. It also wanted matching pairs: “Practically every stone in this collection between 10 and 30 carats is a couple,” he points out.
“If we went for something which was 100-carats-plus, we would have had to go into the VS range,” comments Antwerp-based Anjal Bhansali, managing director at Samir. The team even broke up a stone of roughly 75 carats into two matching stones weighing around 30 carats each, Bhansali reveals.
Boost for big stones
The manufacturers hope the collection will succeed in reinvigorating the large-diamond sector, expanding it beyond the traditional two giants.
“The goal is to create more awareness for big stones in the market and to bring in new players,” Taché concludes. “We started it with Chopard. We [are continuing] this now with Van Cleef.”
It’s unclear whether the Basel show will ever return. However, everyone involved in the Lesotho Legend project will agree that the 2018 edition was well worth it.
Africa-focused Gem Diamonds has found a 125 carat rough stone at its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the miner’s second rock over 100 carats mined this year.
The company, known for the recovery of large, high quality stones in 2020, has seen output of high quality diamonds surpassing the 100 carat mark become less frequent over the past year.
In 2021, Gem Diamonds found only six of such diamonds at Letšeng, compared to the 16 it discovered in 2020.
The find comes as prices for small diamonds have jumped about 20% since the start of March, as cutters, polishers and traders struggle to source stones outside Russia.
State owned Russian miner Alrosa, the world’s top diamond producer by output, was hit with US sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Higher prices for lower end stones are good news for miners, but not a game changer, experts say. While every mine is different, a general rule is that 20% of production the best stones account for about 80% of profits.
Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, the company has found more than 60 white gem quality diamonds over 100 carats each, with 16 of them recovered last year. At an average elevation of 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.
Lucapa Diamond Company yesterday announced the recovery of a 204 carat diamond from the Mothae mine in Lesotho.
According to the company’s statement, the 204 carat white stone is the eighth +100 carat diamond and third +200 carat to be recovered from the Mothae mine since commercial mining commenced in January 2019, underlining its unique large stone nature.
Lucapa Diamond Company is an ASX listed diamond miner and explorer with assets in Africa and Australia. It has interests in two producing diamond mines in Angola (Lulo) and Lesotho (Mothae).
“The large, high-value diamonds produced from these two niche African diamond mines attract some of the highest prices per carat for rough diamonds globally,” the company said.
The Lulo mine has been in commercial production since 2015, while the Mothae mine commenced commercial production in 2019.
Gem Diamonds has unearthed two large rough stones from its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, marking the fourth and fifth diamonds from the deposit over 100 carats this year.
The stones — weighing 245 and 102 carats — are high-quality, white, type II diamonds, the miner said Monday. The company found both stones on the same day.
The recoveries follow that of two diamonds weighing 370 and 254 carats in May. The company also discovered a 146.9-carat rough in January.
Output of large stones has been sluggish in the first half of the year as Gem Diamonds mined lower-value areas of the deposit, it explained. In the first six months of the year, the company unearthed three 100-carat-plus diamonds, compared to seven in the same period of 2020. Last year, Gem Diamonds recovered 13 stones greater than 100 carats by September 30, and 16 for the full year.
Gem Diamonds has unearthed two large rough stones from its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, marking the fourth and fifth diamonds from the deposit over 100 carats this year.
The stones — weighing 245 and 102 carats — are high-quality, white, type II diamonds, the miner said Monday. The company found both stones on the same day.
The recoveries follow that of two diamonds weighing 370 and 254 carats in May. The company also discovered a 146.9-carat rough in January.
Output of large stones has been sluggish in the first half of the year as Gem Diamonds mined lower-value areas of the deposit, it explained. In the first six months of the year, the company unearthed three 100-carat-plus diamonds, compared to seven in the same period of 2020. Last year, Gem Diamonds recovered 13 stones greater than 100 carats by September 30, and 16 for the full year.
A 21.86 carat natural pink diamond named “The Pink Palesa” will be sold by the Bonas Group in Antwerp in July.
Credit: Namakwa Diamonds
The pink gem was discovered on May 18 at the Kao mine in Lesotho one of the few sources of pink diamonds in the world following the closure of the iconic Argyle mine last year. Argyle provided about 90% of the world’s pink gems. Kao is operated and owned by Namakwa through its subsidiary, Storm Mountain Diamonds.
According to the report, Kao has yielded several pink diamonds in the last few years: The 25.97 carat Pink Dawn (2021), the 36.06-carat Pink Storm sold in 2014, the 3.06 carat Purple Princess (2017) and the 29.59 carat Rose of Kao (2018).
A 21.86 carat natural pink diamond named “The Pink Palesa” will be sold by the Bonas Group in Antwerp in July.
Credit: Namakwa Diamonds
The pink gem was discovered on May 18 at the Kao mine in Lesotho one of the few sources of pink diamonds in the world following the closure of the iconic Argyle mine last year. Argyle provided about 90% of the world’s pink gems. Kao is operated and owned by Namakwa through its subsidiary, Storm Mountain Diamonds.
According to the report, Kao has yielded several pink diamonds in the last few years: The 25.97 carat Pink Dawn (2021), the 36.06-carat Pink Storm sold in 2014, the 3.06 carat Purple Princess (2017) and the 29.59 carat Rose of Kao (2018).
The auction came as the Mountain Kingdom explores how to ensure diamond mines are at least 51 percent-owned by locals, which will include the entry of small-scale miners into the sector.
Lesotho’s diamonds are usually auctioned in Antwerp, Belgium. Buyers from as far as the Netherlands and Israel were joined by those from neighbouring South Africa and locals at the inaugural auction.
Launched by Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu, the auction sold off diamonds collected from the public and those confiscated by the police in recent months. Of the 493 diamonds auctioned, 140 were voluntarily handed over by the public while 353 were confiscated by the police.
The government offered an amnesty from November 2020 to March 2021 to anyone in possession of undocumented diamonds, allowing them to hand the gems over without fear of prosecution. The auction was held from May 27 to 29.
Mining Minister Serialong Qoo said all revenue from the confiscated diamonds would be forfeited to the state and proceeds from gems voluntarily handed to the government would be paid into the holders’ bank accounts.
“I am very delighted that this day has finally come after it was initially delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a big move as parliament has now embraced the idea of letting Basotho mine with their picks and shovels legally,” said Minister Qoo.
Mining Ministry spokesperson Ms ‘Makananelo Motseko this week said a final report on the auction was being compiled and would be made public.
At the auction, Deputy PM Mr Mokhothu said, “We hope this local auctioning will spell the end for illegal diamond dealing as trade will be done securely and legally. This occasion gives me hope that soon, all of Lesotho’s diamonds will be sold in-country and benefit it economically.”
He also said Lesotho should move towards ensuring that at least 51 percent of shareholding in the diamond mines is held locally while investors would hold the remaining 49 percent.
The auction came as the Mountain Kingdom explores how to ensure diamond mines are at least 51 percent-owned by locals, which will include the entry of small-scale miners into the sector.
Lesotho’s diamonds are usually auctioned in Antwerp, Belgium. Buyers from as far as the Netherlands and Israel were joined by those from neighbouring South Africa and locals at the inaugural auction.
Launched by Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu, the auction sold off diamonds collected from the public and those confiscated by the police in recent months. Of the 493 diamonds auctioned, 140 were voluntarily handed over by the public while 353 were confiscated by the police.
The government offered an amnesty from November 2020 to March 2021 to anyone in possession of undocumented diamonds, allowing them to hand the gems over without fear of prosecution. The auction was held from May 27 to 29.
Mining Minister Serialong Qoo said all revenue from the confiscated diamonds would be forfeited to the state and proceeds from gems voluntarily handed to the government would be paid into the holders’ bank accounts.
“I am very delighted that this day has finally come after it was initially delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a big move as parliament has now embraced the idea of letting Basotho mine with their picks and shovels legally,” said Minister Qoo.
Mining Ministry spokesperson Ms ‘Makananelo Motseko this week said a final report on the auction was being compiled and would be made public.
At the auction, Deputy PM Mr Mokhothu said, “We hope this local auctioning will spell the end for illegal diamond dealing as trade will be done securely and legally. This occasion gives me hope that soon, all of Lesotho’s diamonds will be sold in-country and benefit it economically.”
He also said Lesotho should move towards ensuring that at least 51 percent of shareholding in the diamond mines is held locally while investors would hold the remaining 49 percent.
Gem Diamonds has recovered a 370-carat rough stone in Lesotho, the second over 100 carats in one week.
The “high-quality,” white, type II diamond came from the company’s Letšeng mine, known for producing large diamonds, it said Monday. The new find follows the discovery of a high-quality, 254-carat, white, type II diamond the miner reported on May 4.
The miner has unearthed three 100-carat-plus diamonds so far this year, including a 146.9-carat rough in January. Although output of large stones was sluggish in the first quarter as the company mined lower-value areas, it is still ahead of last year’s discovery of two stones greater than 100 carats by the middle of May.
In 2020, Gem Diamonds produced a total of 16 diamonds larger than 100 carats.
Gem Diamonds has recovered a 370-carat rough stone in Lesotho, the second over 100 carats in one week.
The “high-quality,” white, type II diamond came from the company’s Letšeng mine, known for producing large diamonds, it said Monday. The new find follows the discovery of a high-quality, 254-carat, white, type II diamond the miner reported on May 4.
The miner has unearthed three 100-carat-plus diamonds so far this year, including a 146.9-carat rough in January. Although output of large stones was sluggish in the first quarter as the company mined lower-value areas, it is still ahead of last year’s discovery of two stones greater than 100 carats by the middle of May.
In 2020, Gem Diamonds produced a total of 16 diamonds larger than 100 carats.
A small diamond miner that has dug some of the world’s most valuable gems from a mountainous African kingdom has found another huge stone.
Gem Diamonds Ltd. said Friday it had an unearthed a 442-carat diamond at its Letseng mine in Lesotho. While it’s hard to establish a price for such stones before cutters can evaluate them, it could sell for as much as $18 million, Edward Sterck, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note.
Given the rarity of such large stones, demand for big diamonds has traditionally been resilient, even at times when the wider industry has struggled.
The Letseng mine is famous for the size and quality of the diamonds it produces and has the highest average selling price in the world. Two years ago Gem Diamonds found a 910-carat stone, the size of two golf balls, that sold for $40 million.
The find comes as the global diamond industry has been brought to its knees by the pandemic. Jewelry stores have closed and India’s cutting industry, which handles almost all of the world’s stones, has come to a halt. The miners that dominate the industry, De Beers and Russian rival Alrosa PJSC, have seen their rough diamond sales collapse.
“The recovery of this remarkable 442 carat diamond, one of the world’s largest gem quality diamonds to be recovered this year, is further confirmation of the caliber of the Letseng mine and its ability to consistently produce large, high quality diamonds,” Clifford Elphick, Gem’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.
A small diamond miner that has dug some of the world’s most valuable gems from a mountainous African kingdom has found another huge stone.
Gem Diamonds Ltd. said Friday it had an unearthed a 442-carat diamond at its Letseng mine in Lesotho. While it’s hard to establish a price for such stones before cutters can evaluate them, it could sell for as much as $18 million, Edward Sterck, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note.
Given the rarity of such large stones, demand for big diamonds has traditionally been resilient, even at times when the wider industry has struggled.
The Letseng mine is famous for the size and quality of the diamonds it produces and has the highest average selling price in the world. Two years ago Gem Diamonds found a 910-carat stone, the size of two golf balls, that sold for $40 million.
The find comes as the global diamond industry has been brought to its knees by the pandemic. Jewelry stores have closed and India’s cutting industry, which handles almost all of the world’s stones, has come to a halt. The miners that dominate the industry, De Beers and Russian rival Alrosa PJSC, have seen their rough diamond sales collapse.
“The recovery of this remarkable 442 carat diamond, one of the world’s largest gem quality diamonds to be recovered this year, is further confirmation of the caliber of the Letseng mine and its ability to consistently produce large, high quality diamonds,” Clifford Elphick, Gem’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.
Gem Diamonds at an elevation of 3,100 meters above sea level, The Letšeng Diamond mine is one of the world’s highest diamond mines.
The Letšeng Diamond Mine is having an extraordinary year this far as the miner continues to recover rough diamonds larger than 100 carats at its mine in Lesotho.
On Wednesday, the company announced it had recovered a 152 carat D colour type IIa diamond, the sixth exceptional large rough diamond so far this year.
Gem Diamonds at an elevation of 3,100 meters above sea level, The
Letšeng Diamond mine is one of the world’s highest diamond mines.
The Letšeng Diamond Mine is having an extraordinary year this far as
the miner continues to recover rough diamonds larger than 100 carats at
its mine in Lesotho.
On Wednesday, the company announced it had recovered a 152 carat D
colour type IIa diamond, the sixth exceptional large rough diamond so
far this year.
