South Africa’s Petra Diamond has found yet another big rock at its iconic Cullinan mine, one of the many coloured diamonds it has unearthed at the operation this year.
The exceptional 20.08 carat blue gem quality diamond Type IIb demonstrates that Cullinan remains a significant source of rare blue diamonds, and confirms the ability of the mine’s plant to recover the full spectrum of precious stones, Petra said.
In April this year, the company found a 424.89 carat exceptional D colour Type IIa diamond at the same mine. The stone was sold the next month for just under $15 million.
In 2015, Petra sold “The Blue Moon of Josephine”, a 29.6 carat blue diamond, for $48.5 million, marking a world record price per carat at auction for any diamond at the time.
South Africa’s Petra Diamond has found yet another big rock at its iconic Cullinan mine, one of the many coloured diamonds it has unearthed at the operation this year.
The exceptional 20.08 carat blue gem quality diamond Type IIb demonstrates that Cullinan remains a significant source of rare blue diamonds, and confirms the ability of the mine’s plant to recover the full spectrum of precious stones, Petra said.
In April this year, the company found a 424.89 carat exceptional D colour Type IIa diamond at the same mine. The stone was sold the next month for just under $15 million.
In 2015, Petra sold “The Blue Moon of Josephine”, a 29.6 carat blue diamond, for $48.5 million, marking a world record price per carat at auction for any diamond at the time.
Richard J. Whitby, who previously served as senior vice president of finance for De Beers group sightholder sales, has joined ALTR Created Diamonds as the company’s new chief financial officer.
Whitby worked for De Beers from 2007 to 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. His experience includes time in De Beers’ marketing, supply chain, and sales and distribution divisions. He most recently worked as a financial consultant for diamond companies based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Lab-grown diamonds are a major innovation that is breathing new life into the diamond industry, and I look forward to applying my expertise to the future of this field at this exciting time,” Whitby said in a statement.
Amish Shah, founder and president of ALTR, said in the same statement, “Richard brings meaningful executive experience increasing the forward momentum of large international diamond businesses, and I’m confident his contributions will be key in helping us continue to grow and innovate in our category and the industry itself.”
He is not the first De Beers executive who has recently decided to explore the lab-grown diamond business. Last month, Toby Cruse, a two-decade veteran of De Beers, announced plans to join Diamond Foundry, though he is currently observing a six-month “cooling off” period.
Richard J. Whitby, who previously served as senior vice president of finance for De Beers group sightholder sales, has joined ALTR Created Diamonds as the company’s new chief financial officer.
Whitby worked for De Beers from 2007 to 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. His experience includes time in De Beers’ marketing, supply chain, and sales and distribution divisions. He most recently worked as a financial consultant for diamond companies based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Lab-grown diamonds are a major innovation that is breathing new life into the diamond industry, and I look forward to applying my expertise to the future of this field at this exciting time,” Whitby said in a statement.
Amish Shah, founder and president of ALTR, said in the same statement, “Richard brings meaningful executive experience increasing the forward momentum of large international diamond businesses, and I’m confident his contributions will be key in helping us continue to grow and innovate in our category and the industry itself.”
He is not the first De Beers executive who has recently decided to explore the lab-grown diamond business. Last month, Toby Cruse, a two-decade veteran of De Beers, announced plans to join Diamond Foundry, though he is currently observing a six-month “cooling off” period.
Lucara Diamond has unearthed a 123-carat, gem-quality, top white Type II diamond at its Karowe mine, in Botswana, the same operation where it found the largest precious rock ever found in the African country.
The stone was recovered from direct milling ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe, the same area that yielded the famous “Lesedi La Rona.” The giant 1,109 carat diamond, however, was a hard sell for Lucara. Its buyer, Graff Diamonds ended up cutting it into smaller stones.
Karowe, which began commercial operations in 2012, has this year yielded 22 diamonds larger than 100 carats, eight of them exceeding 200 carats.
The mine also yielded the 1,758 carat Sewelô meaning “rare find” diamond, the largest ever recovered in Botswana.
The Vancouver-based company also announced it had recovered a 375 carat gem quality diamond during the processing of historic tailings from the mine. Reprocessing has so far yielded 29 diamonds over 100 carats, Lucara said.
Since the start of the year, the miner has sold 19 diamonds each with an individual price in excess of $1 million at its quarterly tender sales. This includes seven diamonds that fetched more than $2 million each, and one diamond that carried a final price tag of over $8 million.
“Lucara is pleased with the continued strong performance of the mine and the consistent recovery of large, high quality diamonds that contribute more than 70% of Lucara’s total revenues,” CEO Eira Thomas said in a statement.
The company, which has focused efforts on the prolific Botswana mine this year, is close to completing a feasibility study into potential underground production and life of mine expansion at Karowe.
Lucara Diamond has unearthed a 123-carat, gem-quality, top white Type II diamond at its Karowe mine, in Botswana, the same operation where it found the largest precious rock ever found in the African country.
The stone was recovered from direct milling ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe, the same area that yielded the famous “Lesedi La Rona.” The giant 1,109 carat diamond, however, was a hard sell for Lucara. Its buyer, Graff Diamonds ended up cutting it into smaller stones.
Karowe, which began commercial operations in 2012, has this year yielded 22 diamonds larger than 100 carats, eight of them exceeding 200 carats.
The mine also yielded the 1,758 carat Sewelô meaning “rare find” diamond, the largest ever recovered in Botswana.
The Vancouver-based company also announced it had recovered a 375 carat gem quality diamond during the processing of historic tailings from the mine. Reprocessing has so far yielded 29 diamonds over 100 carats, Lucara said.
Since the start of the year, the miner has sold 19 diamonds each with an individual price in excess of $1 million at its quarterly tender sales. This includes seven diamonds that fetched more than $2 million each, and one diamond that carried a final price tag of over $8 million.
“Lucara is pleased with the continued strong performance of the mine and the consistent recovery of large, high quality diamonds that contribute more than 70% of Lucara’s total revenues,” CEO Eira Thomas said in a statement.
The company, which has focused efforts on the prolific Botswana mine this year, is close to completing a feasibility study into potential underground production and life of mine expansion at Karowe.
Russian diamond miner Alrosa is considering the acquisition of Russia’s largest producer and exporter of polished diamonds, Kristall, which is valued at 1.89 billion ruble.
Kristall processes more than 200 000 ct/y of rough diamonds, with 90% of diamond feedstock supplied by Alrosa.
Krystall Diamonds
“On the back of the increasingly complex economic environment, Kristall has been going through some financial challenges in recent years. However, the business maintains its output volumes boasting rich heritage, state of the art equipment, and extensive expertise in rough diamonds cutting,” said Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov on Tuesday.
He noted that Alrosa was not new cutting and polishing and that its Diamonds Alrosa branch was responsible for about 20% of polished diamonds in Russia. After consolidating Kristall, the group’s share in the Russian market would reach as much as 70%.
“We are quite optimistic about the integration prospects and have already embarked on preparatory work to start joint operations in cutting and sales.
We will focus our efforts on developing new sales channels, including those in the US and Chinese markets, while also improving production efficiency by leveraging the latest diamond processing technologies, automating routine operations, and creating competence hubs to bring together high tech equipment and industry professionals.
We expect that our efforts to merge our cutting facilities will help reduce production costs and, subject to a favourable market environment, take up a considerable share of the market for best in class polished diamonds.”
If approved by the Alrosa supervisory board, the sale and purchase agreement is expected to be signed by the end of this month.
The Kristall diamond factory was founded in Smolensk in 1963. Last year, Kristall production and sales were 105 700 ct and 111 700 ct of polished diamonds, respectively. Its total revenue amounted to 12.8 billion ruble, and net profit reached 40.7 million ruble.
In 2002, Kristall launched its own jewellery production, and the retail chain of Smolensk Diamonds, its jewellery entity, now has over 50 sales points in 30 Russian cities. Kristall’s another entity, Almaz Servis, produces tooling and equipment for the diamond industry.
