Sunday, 7 April 2019

Rare 25ct. Diamond to Lead Christie’s Geneva



A storied diamond connected to the Oppenheimer family will be among the top lots at next month’s Geneva auction at Christie’s, with a presale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

The rectangular cut, 25.27 carat, D color Jonker V ring will go under the hammer at the Magnificent Jewels sale on May 15, the auction house said last week.

The stone was cut from a 726 carat rough South African farmer Johannes Jacobus Jonker discovered in 1934.

At the time, the Jonker was the fourth largest gem quality diamond ever unearthed.

A subsidiary belonging to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the founder of Anglo American and a former De Beers chairman, bought the polished stone. In 1935, Harry Winston purchased the diamond and set it in a ring. Later that year, it was displayed during the Silver Jubilee celebrations for King George V and Queen Mary.

Christie’s will also offer a heart shaped, fancy deep blue diamond ring, featuring two stones weighing 2.22 carats and 2 carats, valued at $3.5 million to $4.5 million. Separately, an old cushion-cut, 118.05 carat, fancy yellow diamond carries an estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

Other notable lots are a necklace comprising 110 natural pearls with a presale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million, and a pear shaped, 75.61 carat emerald pendant necklace expected to fetch $2 million to $3 million.

In addition, the Geneva sale will feature an early 19th century emerald and diamond fringe necklace Henri d’Orléans, duke of Aumale, gave to his goddaughter, Princess Hélène of France, for her 1895 wedding to Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Italy.

Source: DCLA

Rare 25ct. Diamond to Lead Christie’s Geneva



A storied diamond connected to the Oppenheimer family will be among the top lots at next month’s Geneva auction at Christie’s, with a presale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

The rectangular cut, 25.27 carat, D color Jonker V ring will go under the hammer at the Magnificent Jewels sale on May 15, the auction house said last week.

The stone was cut from a 726 carat rough South African farmer Johannes Jacobus Jonker discovered in 1934.

At the time, the Jonker was the fourth largest gem quality diamond ever unearthed.

A subsidiary belonging to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the founder of Anglo American and a former De Beers chairman, bought the polished stone. In 1935, Harry Winston purchased the diamond and set it in a ring. Later that year, it was displayed during the Silver Jubilee celebrations for King George V and Queen Mary.

Christie’s will also offer a heart shaped, fancy deep blue diamond ring, featuring two stones weighing 2.22 carats and 2 carats, valued at $3.5 million to $4.5 million. Separately, an old cushion-cut, 118.05 carat, fancy yellow diamond carries an estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

Other notable lots are a necklace comprising 110 natural pearls with a presale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million, and a pear shaped, 75.61 carat emerald pendant necklace expected to fetch $2 million to $3 million.

In addition, the Geneva sale will feature an early 19th century emerald and diamond fringe necklace Henri d’Orléans, duke of Aumale, gave to his goddaughter, Princess Hélène of France, for her 1895 wedding to Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Italy.

Source: DCLA

Two Stone Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond Ring Could Fetch $8 million At Christie’s New York Auction



A “twin stone” fancy vivid blue diamond ring of 3.06 and 2.61 carats with an estimate of $6 million to $8 million is the top lot of Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale.

The April 16 auction at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters will also feature three D colored diamonds of more than 15-carats, including a 16.69 carat marquise cut diamond ring Type IIa, and potentially internally flawless, from The Collection of Elizabeth Stafford with an estimate of $1.2 million to $1.8 million.

Colored diamonds will be represented with a 6.11 carat fancy pink diamond ring estimate $1.2 million to $1.5 million, fancy deep yellow diamond earrings of 7.55 and 7.51 carats estimate $700,000 to $1 million, a 37.65 carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring estimate $600,000 to $800,000 and a 35.06 carat fancy intense yellow diamond pendant of estimate $500,000 to $700,000.

Source: DCLA

Two Stone Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond Ring Could Fetch $8 million At Christie’s New York Auction



A “twin stone” fancy vivid blue diamond ring of 3.06 and 2.61 carats with an estimate of $6 million to $8 million is the top lot of Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale.

The April 16 auction at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters will also feature three D colored diamonds of more than 15-carats, including a 16.69 carat marquise cut diamond ring Type IIa, and potentially internally flawless, from The Collection of Elizabeth Stafford with an estimate of $1.2 million to $1.8 million.

Colored diamonds will be represented with a 6.11 carat fancy pink diamond ring estimate $1.2 million to $1.5 million, fancy deep yellow diamond earrings of 7.55 and 7.51 carats estimate $700,000 to $1 million, a 37.65 carat fancy intense yellow diamond ring estimate $600,000 to $800,000 and a 35.06 carat fancy intense yellow diamond pendant of estimate $500,000 to $700,000.

Source: DCLA

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Why Canada’s diamond miners are in trouble



It’s only been 20 years since diamond mining began in Canada, but the industry is already on its knees.

The story of how two prospectors, down to their last nickels, discovered diamonds in Canada’s frozen north is the stuff of legend.

Back in 1982, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson laid low in a pup tent by day while their competitor De Beers hauled 45-gallon drums of rock samples to a nearby outpost for transport to South Africa.

Using the long hours of summer sunlight north of the 65th parallel, the two searched for indicator minerals — bits of garnet, chromite or zircon often found with diamonds — while their opponent slept. Nine years later their treasure hunt culminated with the discovery of a carrot-shaped funnel of blue-grey kimberlite rock that would become Ekati — the first great diamond mine outside Southern Africa or Russia.

For all the drama associated with the discovery in Canada’s Northwest Territories — hacking through snow and ice taller than the average person, battling Arctic winds and temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius — what came next is proof that diamond mining in Canada is not for the faint of heart.

Whether a diamond mine makes money or not comes down to three variables: production costs, the grade and size of the deposit, and the price the diamonds fetch on global markets. In recent years, all of these have conspired to bring the Canadian industry to its knees.

“It’s disconcerting, given the way it started,” said Blusson, an active octogenarian who helms diamond exploration company Archon Minerals Ltd. and still flies his own helicopter. “Twenty years is only all we’ve been mining now. Is there going to be another 20 years? I don’t know.”

Ekati and sister mine Diavik, located 210 kilometres (130 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, are now old, tired and running out of diamonds; they will likely both close soon. So far, the mines that were designed to replace them aren’t faring well either.

Diamonds from the Diavik mine in 2003. Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun files

De Beers, the London-based diamond giant, has already flooded one of its huge Canadian mines; the other, Gahcho Kue, took 21 years to reach production and is now turning out stones worth far less than it hoped. It’s a similar story for a scattering of newer mines that have sprung up across the country: low quality stones, management mistakes and falling prices for their stones put a terrible squeeze on their businesses.

Every operating mine in Canada produces stones that fall below the global average, with all but one mine producing diamonds that fetch less than US$100 a carat. By contrast, both De Beers and Alrosa, which mine more than half the world’s diamonds, average more than US$160 a carat. For smaller miners in Southern Africa, the gap is even more extreme. Gem Diamonds Ltd. and Lucara Diamond Corp. had average selling prices of US$2,131 and US$502 per carat respectively last year.

While Canada is now the world’s third-biggest diamond producer, behind Russia and Botwsana, its average selling price is the cheapest of the major diamond mining countries.

The question for Canadian producers is whether it makes sense to change strategy and focus on bigger, more valuable stones.

“Can you save considerable amounts of money by upping your cut-off size and just recovering those goods?” asks Eira Thomas, who co-founded Stornoway Diamond Corp., and served as its president and chairwoman for years. Now chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Lucara Diamond, which produces high-end diamonds in Botswana, Thomas is more optimistic about Canadian production than Blusson.

“They’re not in jeopardy of failing, they’re just not making as much money as we had hoped,” Thomas said. “And that, of course, is translating to discontented shareholders more than anything else.”

Shares Plunge

That may be an understatement. Shares of Longueuil, Quebec-based Stornoway trade near a record low of just 10 US cents a piece, even after opening the US$750 million Renard mine in 2017, the province’s first. It’s a similar story for Toronto-based Mountain Province Diamonds Inc., which owns Gahcho Kue with De Beers. Its shares are close to the lowest since the financial crisis, cutting its market value to below $250 million (US$187 million).

Canada’s flagship miner, Dominion Diamond Mines, the owner of Ekati and a stake in Diavik with Rio Tinto Group, has also had a rough ride. After being bought for US$1.2 billion more than a year ago, the company has been hit by an exodus of top management, with at least five executives leaving, including its CEO and CFO.

The new owner, billionaire Dennis Washington, has also sought to sell the company, according to people familiar with the situation. Washington denied this is the case. Dominion is currently studying two potential expansions, though both projects produce even lower-quality stones, making them a tough sell in the current environment.

Maturing Sector

“You have a maturing sector in Canada: Ekati and Diavik were good mines. When you have good mines, others follow even if the economics are a bit more of a close call,” said Anish Aggarwal, a partner at consultant Gemdax, based in the diamond trading city of Antwerp. “That’s becoming a problem in many mining jurisdictions, not just Canada.”

There are other problems facing the sector. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fight in 2016 against so-called black money caused producers such as De Beers to hold back supply, which has now been sold back into the market. A weaker rupee is also making diamonds more expensive for Indian manufacturers, who cut or polish about 90 per cent of the world’s stones.

There is also increasing pressure from synthetic diamonds. While still a very small part of the industry, the potential threat they pose risks further hurting sentiment in an already fragile market.
A synthetic diamond ring.

Still, there are reasons why Canadian diamond mines keep getting built — and in some cases it has little to do with economics. For De Beers, which has developed three mines there, Canada reduces its dependence on Botswana, where most of its diamonds are mined.

Aggarwal, who was involved in developing what became known as the “CanadaMark” brand to capitalize on the country’s clean image, says there’s potential for more to be done with that.


“Consumers in the U.S. and Canada have positive associations with Canadian diamonds,” he said. “There’s an opportunity with origin. It’s a tool that the miners can use to enhance the value of their diamonds.”

But the track record there hasn’t been good either. Canada tried to create a polishing industry in the Northwest Territories, capitalizing on the backlash against “conflict” diamonds. “Made in Canada” diamonds seemed an easy sell: ethically produced, mined from ice, cut, polished, and laser-etched with a tiny polar bear.

Today, the polishing industry is all but gone and attempts by Dominion to revive the CanadaMark have met with mixed success.

There’s no getting around the higher costs of operating in Canada’s frozen tundra. Everything — labour, fuel and construction — costs more in the remote north.

“You look at these diamond mines, you’ve got your own road, your own airstrip, your own power grids,” said Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. “That may be okay if you’ve got a world class deposit, but not everybody is mining world class assets.”

Source: Bloomberg.com

Why Canada’s diamond miners are in trouble



It’s only been 20 years since diamond mining began in Canada, but the industry is already on its knees.

The story of how two prospectors, down to their last nickels, discovered diamonds in Canada’s frozen north is the stuff of legend.

Back in 1982, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson laid low in a pup tent by day while their competitor De Beers hauled 45-gallon drums of rock samples to a nearby outpost for transport to South Africa.

Using the long hours of summer sunlight north of the 65th parallel, the two searched for indicator minerals — bits of garnet, chromite or zircon often found with diamonds — while their opponent slept. Nine years later their treasure hunt culminated with the discovery of a carrot-shaped funnel of blue-grey kimberlite rock that would become Ekati — the first great diamond mine outside Southern Africa or Russia.

For all the drama associated with the discovery in Canada’s Northwest Territories — hacking through snow and ice taller than the average person, battling Arctic winds and temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius — what came next is proof that diamond mining in Canada is not for the faint of heart.

Whether a diamond mine makes money or not comes down to three variables: production costs, the grade and size of the deposit, and the price the diamonds fetch on global markets. In recent years, all of these have conspired to bring the Canadian industry to its knees.

“It’s disconcerting, given the way it started,” said Blusson, an active octogenarian who helms diamond exploration company Archon Minerals Ltd. and still flies his own helicopter. “Twenty years is only all we’ve been mining now. Is there going to be another 20 years? I don’t know.”

Ekati and sister mine Diavik, located 210 kilometres (130 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, are now old, tired and running out of diamonds; they will likely both close soon. So far, the mines that were designed to replace them aren’t faring well either.

Diamonds from the Diavik mine in 2003. Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun files

De Beers, the London-based diamond giant, has already flooded one of its huge Canadian mines; the other, Gahcho Kue, took 21 years to reach production and is now turning out stones worth far less than it hoped. It’s a similar story for a scattering of newer mines that have sprung up across the country: low quality stones, management mistakes and falling prices for their stones put a terrible squeeze on their businesses.

Every operating mine in Canada produces stones that fall below the global average, with all but one mine producing diamonds that fetch less than US$100 a carat. By contrast, both De Beers and Alrosa, which mine more than half the world’s diamonds, average more than US$160 a carat. For smaller miners in Southern Africa, the gap is even more extreme. Gem Diamonds Ltd. and Lucara Diamond Corp. had average selling prices of US$2,131 and US$502 per carat respectively last year.

While Canada is now the world’s third-biggest diamond producer, behind Russia and Botwsana, its average selling price is the cheapest of the major diamond mining countries.

The question for Canadian producers is whether it makes sense to change strategy and focus on bigger, more valuable stones.

“Can you save considerable amounts of money by upping your cut-off size and just recovering those goods?” asks Eira Thomas, who co-founded Stornoway Diamond Corp., and served as its president and chairwoman for years. Now chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Lucara Diamond, which produces high-end diamonds in Botswana, Thomas is more optimistic about Canadian production than Blusson.

“They’re not in jeopardy of failing, they’re just not making as much money as we had hoped,” Thomas said. “And that, of course, is translating to discontented shareholders more than anything else.”

Shares Plunge

That may be an understatement. Shares of Longueuil, Quebec-based Stornoway trade near a record low of just 10 US cents a piece, even after opening the US$750 million Renard mine in 2017, the province’s first. It’s a similar story for Toronto-based Mountain Province Diamonds Inc., which owns Gahcho Kue with De Beers. Its shares are close to the lowest since the financial crisis, cutting its market value to below $250 million (US$187 million).

Canada’s flagship miner, Dominion Diamond Mines, the owner of Ekati and a stake in Diavik with Rio Tinto Group, has also had a rough ride. After being bought for US$1.2 billion more than a year ago, the company has been hit by an exodus of top management, with at least five executives leaving, including its CEO and CFO.

The new owner, billionaire Dennis Washington, has also sought to sell the company, according to people familiar with the situation. Washington denied this is the case. Dominion is currently studying two potential expansions, though both projects produce even lower-quality stones, making them a tough sell in the current environment.

Maturing Sector

“You have a maturing sector in Canada: Ekati and Diavik were good mines. When you have good mines, others follow even if the economics are a bit more of a close call,” said Anish Aggarwal, a partner at consultant Gemdax, based in the diamond trading city of Antwerp. “That’s becoming a problem in many mining jurisdictions, not just Canada.”

There are other problems facing the sector. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fight in 2016 against so-called black money caused producers such as De Beers to hold back supply, which has now been sold back into the market. A weaker rupee is also making diamonds more expensive for Indian manufacturers, who cut or polish about 90 per cent of the world’s stones.

There is also increasing pressure from synthetic diamonds. While still a very small part of the industry, the potential threat they pose risks further hurting sentiment in an already fragile market.
A synthetic diamond ring.

Still, there are reasons why Canadian diamond mines keep getting built — and in some cases it has little to do with economics. For De Beers, which has developed three mines there, Canada reduces its dependence on Botswana, where most of its diamonds are mined.

Aggarwal, who was involved in developing what became known as the “CanadaMark” brand to capitalize on the country’s clean image, says there’s potential for more to be done with that.


“Consumers in the U.S. and Canada have positive associations with Canadian diamonds,” he said. “There’s an opportunity with origin. It’s a tool that the miners can use to enhance the value of their diamonds.”

But the track record there hasn’t been good either. Canada tried to create a polishing industry in the Northwest Territories, capitalizing on the backlash against “conflict” diamonds. “Made in Canada” diamonds seemed an easy sell: ethically produced, mined from ice, cut, polished, and laser-etched with a tiny polar bear.

Today, the polishing industry is all but gone and attempts by Dominion to revive the CanadaMark have met with mixed success.

There’s no getting around the higher costs of operating in Canada’s frozen tundra. Everything — labour, fuel and construction — costs more in the remote north.

“You look at these diamond mines, you’ve got your own road, your own airstrip, your own power grids,” said Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. “That may be okay if you’ve got a world class deposit, but not everybody is mining world class assets.”

Source: Bloomberg.com

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

FTC sends warning letters to companies regarding diamond ad disclosures



FTC staff sent eight letters to jewelry marketers warning them that some of their online advertisements of jewelry made with simulated or laboratory-created diamonds may deceive consumers, in violation of the FTC Act.

The letters note that in July 2018, the FTC issued updated Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries that provide marketers with information on how to make non-deceptive representations about jewelry and related products, including mined, lab-created, and simulated diamonds.
Failure to follow the Guides, the staff warns, may result in enforcement actions if the FTC determines the companies engaged in unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Such actions could result in civil penalties if the company engaged in practices knowing that the Commission has already deemed them deceptive in earlier litigation.

In the letters, the staff expresses concerns that some of the companies advertising fails to conform to the current version of the Guides, and may therefore deceive consumers. Specifically, the staff points out examples where the advertising might imply that a simulated diamond is a lab-created or mined diamond, or that a lab-created diamond is a mined diamond, or where required disclosures about the source of the diamonds are not proximate to the individual product descriptions.

To help educate the companies, the letters caution them not to use the name of any precious stone, including diamonds, to describe a simulated or lab-created stone, unless the name is immediately proceeded by a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the product is not a mined stone. The staff also encourages companies selling simulated diamonds to avoid describing their products in a way that may falsely imply that they have the same optical, physical, and chemical properties of mined diamonds.

The letters also note that similar non-deceptive disclosures are required when advertising jewelry containing precious stones other than diamonds, including emeralds and rubies, as well as pearls.

Several letters also note that the companies have advertised their jewelry as Eco-friendly,Eco-conscious,or sustainable, and that such terms can be interpreted to imply certain specific environmental benefits. Sellers must have a reasonable basis for making such claims for any products and the claims should be adequately qualified to avoid deception. The letters admonish the companies not to use unqualified claims such as Eco-friendly,Eco-conscious,or sustainable, as it is highly unlikely that they can substantiate all reasonable interpretations of these claims.

Finally, in each letter, the staff asks the companies to advise them within 10 days within receipt of steps they plan to take to revise their marketing so that it follows the Jewelry Guides and therefore complies with the FTC Act.

Source: idexonline.

Tiffany Buys Back Titanic Watch for Record $1.97m

Tiffany & Co paid a record $1.97m for a gold pocket watch it made in 1912, and which was gifted to the captain of a ship that rescued mo...