A Crucial Moment for Artisanal Miners

The question of how to tackle the hardships facing informal diamond miners is as pressing today as it was when it first arose nearly 20 years ago.

It was first touted as an issue that perhaps the Kimberley Process (KP) could incorporate into its mission. But the KP was not equipped — or mandated — to meet the challenge, even if the sector represented an Achilles heel for a body tasked with facilitating the cross-border trade of responsibly sourced rough.

Instead, the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) formed, taking a developmental approach to advancing artisanal miners. Since its inception, the DDI’s goal has been to create an infrastructure that allows these miners to sell their diamonds through legitimate means, get a fair price for them, and make a sustainable living.

Operating primarily, though not exclusively, in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the organization’s work includes enabling community development; engaging with governments to formulate policies; organizing miners into cooperatives; providing professional training; and running initiatives to raise the diggers’ income, such as introducing them to new buyers.

Typically, the diggers work for less than $2 a day. With such low income, they’ve historically been incentivized to sell their diamonds on the black market, where the stones may be smuggled across the border, mixed with other goods, given a KP certificate and sold on the global market.

With an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million people working in the sector across 15 countries in Africa and three in South America, the DDI has spent much of its time registering miners in its systems and educating them on how they can benefit from working through its channels.

The organization achieved a significant milestone in April last year when it launched the Maendeleo Diamond Standards, a certification system designed to connect artisanal and small-scale diamond miners with responsible supply chains.

The standards include training on legal issues, community engagement, human rights, health and safety, ways to ensure violence-free operations, environmental management, interactions with large-scale mining, and navigating a site closure.

Clearly, given the scope of the artisanal mining sector, challenges remain. The DDI has had limited resources to pursue its goals and expand its reach.

In that context, the group announced in late July that it had merged with Resolve, a much larger non-government organization (NGO) engaged in addressing social, health and environmental issues. Being part of Resolve will give the DDI additional resources, such as administrative support for the work it wants to carry out, explained DDI founder and chairman Ian Smillie, who is joining Resolve’s board of advisers along with DDI vice chair Stephane Fischler. The group will be a division within Resolve and go by DDI@Resolve, with DDI executive director Ian Rowe at the helm.

The merger was born of the realization that the vast number of initiatives out there advocating for artisanal miners — not just in diamonds, but also in minerals such as gold, cobalt, tin, tantalum and tungsten — could lead to confusion. With NGOs, private companies, and government agencies all approaching donors and policy-makers to get support for their programs, the messaging could get muddled, Smillie explained. A pooling of resources would make for more efficient processes and a better outcome for the artisanal mining community.

Another example in July was De Beers’ GemFair program partnering with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and the Mano River Union — a cross-border association comprising Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the Ivory Coast — to develop training in those four countries. Efforts like these have become especially important in the Covid-19 environment, where diamond demand has slumped to historic lows.

While the pandemic has halted activity in the DRC, Sierra Leone has been better able to manage due to its experience with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. But like the rest of the trade, artisanal miners need to think beyond Covid-19 and make sure the right systems are in place to facilitate sales when demand returns. That challenge is especially difficult for these miners, who rely on the DDI’s guidance to gain access to the global diamond market. Hopefully, Resolve will help broaden the DDI’s scope. And as activity scales up, it will be up to the greater jewelry industry to support this important part of the global diamond community.

Source: DCLA

A Crucial Moment for Artisanal Miners

The question of how to tackle the hardships facing informal diamond miners is as pressing today as it was when it first arose nearly 20 years ago.

It was first touted as an issue that perhaps the Kimberley Process (KP) could incorporate into its mission. But the KP was not equipped — or mandated — to meet the challenge, even if the sector represented an Achilles heel for a body tasked with facilitating the cross-border trade of responsibly sourced rough.

Instead, the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) formed, taking a developmental approach to advancing artisanal miners. Since its inception, the DDI’s goal has been to create an infrastructure that allows these miners to sell their diamonds through legitimate means, get a fair price for them, and make a sustainable living.

Operating primarily, though not exclusively, in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the organization’s work includes enabling community development; engaging with governments to formulate policies; organizing miners into cooperatives; providing professional training; and running initiatives to raise the diggers’ income, such as introducing them to new buyers.

Typically, the diggers work for less than $2 a day. With such low income, they’ve historically been incentivized to sell their diamonds on the black market, where the stones may be smuggled across the border, mixed with other goods, given a KP certificate and sold on the global market.

With an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million people working in the sector across 15 countries in Africa and three in South America, the DDI has spent much of its time registering miners in its systems and educating them on how they can benefit from working through its channels.

The organization achieved a significant milestone in April last year when it launched the Maendeleo Diamond Standards, a certification system designed to connect artisanal and small-scale diamond miners with responsible supply chains.

The standards include training on legal issues, community engagement, human rights, health and safety, ways to ensure violence-free operations, environmental management, interactions with large-scale mining, and navigating a site closure.

Clearly, given the scope of the artisanal mining sector, challenges remain. The DDI has had limited resources to pursue its goals and expand its reach.

In that context, the group announced in late July that it had merged with Resolve, a much larger non-government organization (NGO) engaged in addressing social, health and environmental issues. Being part of Resolve will give the DDI additional resources, such as administrative support for the work it wants to carry out, explained DDI founder and chairman Ian Smillie, who is joining Resolve’s board of advisers along with DDI vice chair Stephane Fischler. The group will be a division within Resolve and go by DDI@Resolve, with DDI executive director Ian Rowe at the helm.

The merger was born of the realization that the vast number of initiatives out there advocating for artisanal miners — not just in diamonds, but also in minerals such as gold, cobalt, tin, tantalum and tungsten — could lead to confusion. With NGOs, private companies, and government agencies all approaching donors and policy-makers to get support for their programs, the messaging could get muddled, Smillie explained. A pooling of resources would make for more efficient processes and a better outcome for the artisanal mining community.

Another example in July was De Beers’ GemFair program partnering with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and the Mano River Union — a cross-border association comprising Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the Ivory Coast — to develop training in those four countries. Efforts like these have become especially important in the Covid-19 environment, where diamond demand has slumped to historic lows.

While the pandemic has halted activity in the DRC, Sierra Leone has been better able to manage due to its experience with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. But like the rest of the trade, artisanal miners need to think beyond Covid-19 and make sure the right systems are in place to facilitate sales when demand returns. That challenge is especially difficult for these miners, who rely on the DDI’s guidance to gain access to the global diamond market. Hopefully, Resolve will help broaden the DDI’s scope. And as activity scales up, it will be up to the greater jewelry industry to support this important part of the global diamond community.

Source: DCLA

Alrosa's July diamond sales drop 79%, state help may be on its way

Russian diamond producer Alrosa said on Monday that its rough and polished diamond sales totalled $35.8 million in July, down 79% from a year earlier after the coronavirus pandemic hit demand and the supply chain.

It marked a fourth consecutive month of weak sales as falling demand and supply chain disruptions since March have prompted Alrosa and other producers to reduce output and relax payment terms for clients.

Alrosa’s sales rose from $31.3 million in June but still were only a fraction of the usual sales of the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds. Its sales in July 2019 totalled $170.5 million.

The state-controlled firm has previously said that it was prepared for months of weak sales and that in coming months it will discuss with Russia’s finance ministry whether state precious metals and gems repository Gokhran could buy $0.5 billion-$1 billion of the firm’s rough diamonds.

The finance ministry is yet to take the final decision but is positive about the possibility of such a deal, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source at the ministry.

Such a deal would help to improve the situation in the market, as it did in 2008-2009 when Gokhran bought diamonds worth $1 billion from Alrosa during the global financial crisis, the source told Kommersant.

Source: DCLA

Alrosa's July diamond sales drop 79%, state help may be on its way

Russian diamond producer Alrosa said on Monday that its rough and polished diamond sales totalled $35.8 million in July, down 79% from a year earlier after the coronavirus pandemic hit demand and the supply chain.

It marked a fourth consecutive month of weak sales as falling demand and supply chain disruptions since March have prompted Alrosa and other producers to reduce output and relax payment terms for clients.

Alrosa’s sales rose from $31.3 million in June but still were only a fraction of the usual sales of the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds. Its sales in July 2019 totalled $170.5 million.

The state-controlled firm has previously said that it was prepared for months of weak sales and that in coming months it will discuss with Russia’s finance ministry whether state precious metals and gems repository Gokhran could buy $0.5 billion-$1 billion of the firm’s rough diamonds.

The finance ministry is yet to take the final decision but is positive about the possibility of such a deal, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source at the ministry.

Such a deal would help to improve the situation in the market, as it did in 2008-2009 when Gokhran bought diamonds worth $1 billion from Alrosa during the global financial crisis, the source told Kommersant.

Source: DCLA

Russia unearths its largest ever colour 236 carat rough diamond

The stunning gem aged from 120 to 230 million years was mined in Arctic Yakutia.

The rough diamond is of deep amber colour, its dimensions are 47x24x22 mm.

The precious discovery was made by workers of remote Ebelyakh mine on river Anabar in the extreme north of Yakutia, not far from shores of Laptev Sea and some 1,211km north west from Yakutsk. 

The mine belongs to Diamonds of Anabar, part of ALROSA Group. 

The rough diamond is of deep amber colour, its dimensions are 47x24x22 mm.

The decision hasn’t yet been made as to whether it’ll be sent to Alrosa’s in-house cutting and polishing division, or sold rough. 

‘Such a large natural color rough diamond is a unique discovery.

‘Now, the stone is at ALROSA’s United Selling Organization being studied and evaluated by our specialists.

‘After that, we will decide whether to give it to our manufacturers for cutting or sell it as a rough.

‘Of course, cutters in any country will be interested in such a diamond, as it has the potential to give several high quality polished diamonds,’ said Pavel Vinikhin, head of ALROSA’s cutting and polishing division.

The Ebelyakh mine has produced several brightly-coloured rough diamonds in the past several years.

In summer 2017 alone a crimson, a pink and an intense yellow stones were found within a month. 

Pictured below are the intense yellow and pink diamonds cut and polished from rough stones mined at Ebelyakh. Pictures: ALROSA

Source: DCLA

Russia unearths its largest ever colour 236 carat rough diamond

The stunning gem aged from 120 to 230 million years was mined in Arctic Yakutia.

The rough diamond is of deep amber colour, its dimensions are 47x24x22 mm.

The precious discovery was made by workers of remote Ebelyakh mine on river Anabar in the extreme north of Yakutia, not far from shores of Laptev Sea and some 1,211km north west from Yakutsk. 

The mine belongs to Diamonds of Anabar, part of ALROSA Group. 

The rough diamond is of deep amber colour, its dimensions are 47x24x22 mm.

The decision hasn’t yet been made as to whether it’ll be sent to Alrosa’s in-house cutting and polishing division, or sold rough. 

‘Such a large natural color rough diamond is a unique discovery.

‘Now, the stone is at ALROSA’s United Selling Organization being studied and evaluated by our specialists.

‘After that, we will decide whether to give it to our manufacturers for cutting or sell it as a rough.

‘Of course, cutters in any country will be interested in such a diamond, as it has the potential to give several high quality polished diamonds,’ said Pavel Vinikhin, head of ALROSA’s cutting and polishing division.

The Ebelyakh mine has produced several brightly-coloured rough diamonds in the past several years.

In summer 2017 alone a crimson, a pink and an intense yellow stones were found within a month. 

Pictured below are the intense yellow and pink diamonds cut and polished from rough stones mined at Ebelyakh. Pictures: ALROSA

Source: DCLA

July Figures Cast Cloud over US Retail Recovery

The US retail outlook is declining after the country’s economic recovery slowed in July amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

“A lack of clarity regarding job outlook and future finances tends to influence spending behavior,” said NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz. “Coupled with that, uncertainty about further fiscal support from Congress is likely to cause consumers to shift more into saving their money and away from spending.”

The end of supplemental unemployment insurance benefits, which will result in many consumers losing income, could also disrupt retail sales, the NRF said.

While the US Census Bureau has not yet released monthly figures for July, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Weekly Economic Index — a composite of 10 indicators that measure real-time economic activity — fell to -7.24% on July 25 from -6.65% on July 18. Officials at the bank have cited decreased retail sales as the main factor in the drop. The decline comes after US retail sales were up 8% in May compared with the previous month, and rose another 6% in June, NRF data showed.

Meanwhile, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which assesses consumer sentiment, fell to 92.6 in July from 98.3 in June.

“Such uncertainty about the short-term future does not bode well for the recovery, nor for consumer spending,” added Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators for The Conference Board.

Source: DCLA