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Diamond Organizations Launch Banking Platform

Two leading industry organizations launched a digital know your customer (KYC) platform at a major banking summit in Mumbai on Friday.

The summit titled “Diamond & Jewellery Financing 2018 Mitigating Risks Efficiently” addressed the financial industry’s concerns about the diamond sector in the wake of recent fraud cases. The new platform, released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), will bring greater transparency to the diamond industry, and make regulatory compliance more efficient by helping with the due-diligence process, the Belgian organization said.

MyKYCBank is a global compliance platform for the diamond industry. Users can share KYC data with other companies located in Antwerp and India, as well as banks and other financial institutions, the AWDC explained.

“This initiative will improve confidence and boost lending to the sector, and…ensure better sharing of information and transparency and growth of this SME small and medium sized enterprise sector,” India’s Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said at the summit. “It is important for the banking sector to support the gems and jewelry industry, as it forms an integral part of the country’s gross domestic product.”

The new platform will lower compliance risks for banks, and improve confidence in the sector, said AWDC CEO Ari Epstein.

Source: diamonds.net

Robert Mugabe’s appearance in diamonds inquiry delayed

Former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe will not appear before a parliament committee this week to answer questions on multi-billion-dollar corruption in the diamond industry after the hearing was postponed, a lawmaker said on Monday.

The 94 year old Mugabe had been summoned to appear before the mines and energy committee on Wednesday.

But the member of parliament who is leading the inquiry said the hearing had been postponed to a date yet to be decided by the clerk of parliament.

“The committee had already resolved to invite the former president to give evidence,” Temba Mliswa, mines and energy committee chairperson told AFP.

“It is the clerk of parliament who will write to him (Mugabe) to come to parliament.”

Mugabe’s name did not appear on the parliament committee meetings scheduled for this week.

The lawmakers plan to question Mugabe over his 2016 claim that the country had lost $15-billion (R188-billion) due to corruption and foreign exploitation in the diamond sector.

The committee has already interviewed former ministers, police and intelligence chiefs to answer on diamond mining operations at the vast Chiadzwa gem fields.

Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe from 1980 until he was ousted last year after the military took over briefly and his once loyal Zanu PF party turned against him.

The former ruler, whose own regime was accused of siphoning off diamond profits, has described his ousting as a coup, and that it must be “undone”.

Zimbabwe discovered alluvial diamonds in Chiadzwa, in the east of the country, over 10 years ago, and rights groups have accused security forces of using brutal methods to control the scattered deposits.

Rights groups say over 200 people were killed during operations to remove illegal panners from the area.

Amid allegations of massive looting, Zimbabwe allowed several diamond companies to mine the area – most of them as joint ventures between the government and Chinese firms.

Source: AFP

The Farnese Blue diamond

The Farnese Blue diamond a 6.16 carat pear shaped, GIA graded as Fancy dark gray blue.

Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels in Geneva will auction the diamond on May 15.

The history of the diamond : Recovered in Indian Golconda region, the diamond was first given to Elisabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain in 1714.

It then passed to her son Philip, Duke of Parma, and through various Italian nobles ending with the Habsburg family.

Sarine Secures First Retailer for 4Cs Grading

Japanese jewelry retailer K-Uno is the first to adopt Sarine Technologies’ 4Cs diamond grading reports.

K-Uno has implement the artificial intelligence based platform at all its stores across Japan. The record will add additional features, including 4Cs grades, to the current Sarine Profile report, which lists characteristics such as light performance and hearts and arrows. The report will use artificial intelligence to grade qualities such as clarity and colour.

“Our 4Cs report creates an intuitive digital experience that will help engage K-Uno customers throughout the diamond-purchase journey,” Sarine CEO David Block said last week. “We expect additional retailers in the Asia Pacific region to soon be adopting the new reports.”

Lucapa recovers large pink diamond in Angola

The company announced that it has recovered a 46 carat pink diamond from the Lulo diamond project in Angola, a source of a series of high carat discoveries in recent years.

What makes this particular find significant for Lucapa is its location. The 46 carat rough diamond was recovered from a new prospect Mining Block 4, an area planned for resource delineation later this year and set to be included in Lucapa’s alluvial JORC resource update to be published in the coming months.

Kimberley Diamonds’ Botswana Mine to Be Auctioned Online

A diamond mine in Botswana will be offered for sale at an online auction after its liquidators failed to secure viable offers.

Online bids for the Lerala Diamond Mine open at 5 p.m. on May 24 and run through 2 p.m. on May 30, according to a statement published in the weekly Monitor newspaper by the auctioneers, GoIndustry DoveBid.

Lerala, which is owned by Sydney-based Kimberley Diamonds Ltd., was placed under judicial management in June last year due to weak sales and high operating costs. Lerala produced about 59,000 carats in the year leading up to its closure, compared with a published target of 357,000 carats a year, over a seven-year lifespan.

On offer are five kimberlite pipes ranging from 0.16 hectare to 2.35 hectares in area, mining rights, a 200 metric tons per hour processing plant, a 4.2 megawatt diesel generator and other assets. Bidders are required to place a refundable deposit of 5 million pula ($509,000).

The mine has probable reserves of 5 million tons at a grade of 31 carats per 100 tons and inferred resources of 10.3 million tons at 31 carats per 100 tons.

Lucara Diamond Corp. Finds 327-Carat Top White Gem At Karowe Mine

Lucara Diamond Corporation has recovered a 327 carat top colour gem diamond from its one hundred percent owned Karowe diamond mine in Botswana.

Eight rough diamonds larger than 100 carats have now been recovered at Karowe since the beginning of the year, including a 472 carat rough diamond announced earlier this month.

Labs Refute Claims HPHT Escaping Detection

Major gemological laboratories have rebuffed claims that detection machines are failing to spot synthetic diamonds that have undergone irradiation.

In a trade alert last week, Diamond Services argued that the treatment, generally used to alter the color of a stone, can mask the phosphorescence effect when diamonds created using High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) undergo scanning at room temperature.

While detection machines can often identify HPHT diamonds because they phosphoresce — or glow — under ultra-violet light, certain devices fail to spot some of those stones that have been subject to irradiation, the Hong Kong-based diamond-technology company argued.

However, De Beers and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) have denied the impact of such a phenomenon on their machines’ ability to sift out HPHT synthetics.

“The International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research (IIDGR) confirms that its instruments AMS2, SYNTHdetect, DiamondView and DiamondSure are all effective at screening HPHT synthetic material which has been irradiated and is tested at room temperature,” the De Beers-owned grading unit said in a statement last week.

“Any business using these devices can have full confidence that any such material will be detected without the need to undertake tests at different temperatures,” it added.

Meanwhile, although detection devices based on phosphorescence may not be able to detect some HPHT-grown irradiated synthetics, the GIA’s machines can spot them, the Carlsbad, California-headquartered laboratory stressed.

“The ability of the instruments that GIA uses to differentiate natural diamonds from HPHT and CVD [chemical vapor deposition]-grown synthetic diamonds, including the GIA iD100 gem-testing device and the GIA Melee Analysis Service, is not affected by irradiation treatment,” the GIA told Rapaport News.

Examining diamonds at the temperature of liquid nitrogen can be an extremely accurate method of detecting synthetics, while a technique called Raman spectroscopy is a simple way of spotting irradiated diamonds, according to Joseph Kuzi, founder and president of Diamond Services.

“Our latest findings indicate that the diamond and jewelry trades should show extra caution, but we do not claim that irradiated HPHT-grown synthetic diamonds are undetectable,” Kuzi said.

Source: Diamonds.net

Petra Diamonds record output

Shares in Petra Diamonds climbed almost 8% on Monday after the miner reported a significant revenue increase in its third quarter driven by record production in the first three months of 2018.

The South African diamond producer, owner of the iconic Cullinan mine, which produced the diamonds for the British crown jewels, said revenue for the quarter ended March 31 climbed 44% to $172 million, from $119 million a year earlier.

Petra Diamonds saw third-quarter revenue grow by 44% after it produced and sold more gems.

The company, known for some major recent findings, attributed part of the revenue growth to the fact it sold 1,373,771 carats of diamonds compared to 1,069,886 sold in the same period a year earlier.

While production jumped 20% to a record quarterly volume of 1,194,947 carats, Petra said illegal mining at its Kimberley Ekapa Mining JV dented output during the quarter by restricted access to high grade dumps at the surface re-treatment operation.

It also said its full year 2018 revenue continued to be impacted by the inability to sell a blocked diamond parcel from it Williamson mine of about 71,000 carats. The shipment was seized by the Tanzanian government in September last year, as part of the country’s ongoing probe into alleged wrongdoing in the diamond and tanzanite sectors.

Chief executive Johan Dippenaar said the company’s focus would move away from volume targets to value optimization.

‘While we are very encouraged by the operational delivery against our long-term expansion plans, risks to performance continue to relate to increased volatility in the ZAR/US$ exchange rate, grade and pricing variability at Cullinan,” Dippenaar said in the statement, adding that the outlook for its Williamson mine as well as the blocked diamond parcel were also weighing on the company’s future.

De Beers to Sell Diamonds from Artisanal Miners

De Beers announced plans to work with artisanal miners in Sierra Leone to ensure their diamonds are ethically sourced and sold at a fair price on its auction platform.

The company has partnered with the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) on the project, known as GemFair, which is set to launch a pre-pilot phase this month. GemFair will provide tracking technology to artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM), aiming to create a secure and transparent route to market for their diamonds, De Beers said in a statement last week.

“The ASM sector represents a critical income source for many poverty-affected communities,” said De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver. “However, due to parts of the sector being largely informal and unregulated, it lacks access to established international markets and the ability to derive fair value for participants.”

De Beers hopes the new project will help grow acceptance and prospects for artisanal miners, in addition to creating a new supply source for the company, Cleaver added.

Miners who want to participate in the program need to receive certification from the DDI as well as from GemFair. Participants will then be given a diamond “toolkit,” which includes technology enabling them to digitally track all stones throughout the supply chain.

Once the initiative is operational, GemFair will begin buying stones from participating miners, which will then be sold via De Beers’ Auction Sales channel.

De Beers has not set a date for the pilot’s completion, but hopes to make the first purchase later this year.

Source: Diamonds.net