The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)
Buy and sell diamonds with the help of the experts
A 3.09 carat emerald cut fancy intense blue diamond has sold for more than $5.3 million.
Setting a new record price per carat for an intense blue diamond.
The Polished Blue Diamond was set in a platinum ring flanked by tapered baguette cut diamonds.
The Fancy Intense Blue Diamond sold well above its high total estimate of $3 million.
Polished manufacturer Rosy Blue has agreed to acquire a minority share in Leo Schachter, as the diamond suppliers seek to make their operations more efficient.
The deal will enable the firms to use each other’s infrastructure around the world, providing better value for their clients, Leo Schachter said in a statement Monday. Leo Schachter will still operate independently under the Schachter family’s majority ownership, led by its current management team, it noted.
The firms expect the transaction to close soon, but did not disclose other terms of the agreement.
“The relationship and collaboration which we have enjoyed with the Rosy Blue family for over two generations will produce a unique and innovative platform for the demands of today’s diamond industry,” said Elliot Tannenbaum, principal at Leo Schachter.
The companies have been working together for more than 30 years, Leo Schachter noted. They both receive rough supply from De Beers, as sightholders, and from Alrosa’s contract-sales business, and have offices in all major industry hubs.
Source: Diamonds.net
Costco sells 6.5-carat diamond rings worth nearly $US400,000 amid the bulk groceries and home goods that lure bargain seekers to its warehouse stores.
Sky News reporter Jennifer Bechwati tweeted Sunday that she found a diamond ring costing 499,999.99 AUD (or roughly $388,900 USD) at a Costco store in Australia “between bulk AA batteries and dustpans.”
She posted a photo of the round-cut ring that listed its weight as 6.55 carats with colour and clarity of “G” and “VS1,” respectively. The diamond was set in a platinum band.
It turns out that the warehouse chain sells a host of expensive diamonds in stores and online. Costco’s US website lists 303 diamond rings with stones as big as 10 carats. Prices range from $US159 to $US420,000.
Shoppers might not expect to find such expensive rings in stores, but a Costco spokeswoman told the Daily Mail that every one of its warehouses has at least one “WOW” item in its jewellery department.
Costco was ordered to pay the jewellery company Tiffany more than $US19 million last year for selling about 2,500 rings falsely identified on store signs as “Tiffany” rings. Costco argued that the description referred to the rings’ settings, and wasn’t meant to be confused with Tiffany’s brand.
Source: businessinsider
A grading laboratory in China has discovered a synthetic diamond masquerading as a natural stone, complete with a forged inscription and a falsified report.
The National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC) in the city of Shenzhen received a round-brilliant, 3.1-carat diamond ring, which it subsequently graded as F or G color and VS clarity, it said last week.
However, when gemologists checked the laser-inscription code that was already on the girdle, using an online certificate-verification service, they found the grading report bearing that number was for a natural diamond with similar, but not identical, characteristics. The certificate they saw online was for an H-color, VS1-clarity diamond.
The Chinese lab carried out tests that confirmed the stone in the ring was synthetic, created using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The inscription and accompanying paper report, purporting to be from an international grading laboratory, were fakes, the NGTC said.
The stone had a type of impurity, known as a “silicon-vacancy center,” that is extremely rare in natural diamonds but common in CVD diamonds, helping the scientists identify its origins. It also had other characteristics that indicated it was synthetic, such as showing green fluorescence under ultra-violet light.
While this was not the first case of its type — the Gemological Institute of America last year found a synthetic diamond with a forged inscription — it is rarer for a Chinese lab to make such a discovery, NGTC noted. It is also one of the larger synthetic diamonds to have cropped up with false credentials to date, the lab added.
“The growth technology of CVD synthetic diamonds has been making great progress for decades in [terms] of size, color and clarity,” the lab said. “Recently, the distinct characteristics of the synthetic diamond are becoming less, and it is more difficult to differentiate.”
Source: diamonds.net
Russia’s diamond miner Alrosa said on Tuesday that its sales of rough and polished diamonds totaled $559.5 million in March.
There was a slight seasonal cooling off in demand in March,” Alrosa Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov said, according to a company statement.
Alrosa’s total diamond sales in the first quarter 2018 amounted to $1.606 billion, the company said.
12.02 carat Fancy Vivid Pink Internally Flawless pear shape diamond.
One of the rarest diamonds of it’s colour and clarity in the world.
Christie’s New York spring sale will feature an 8.42 carat, fancy intense pink diamond ring, estimated at between $4 million and $6 million, the auction house said Friday.
The cut cornered rectangular modified brilliant cut, VVS1 clarity stone has the potential to be re cut to internally flawless, according to Christie’s. Two tapered baguette cut diamonds surround it on either side.
Sotheby’s will offer the historic Farnese Blue diamond at its Geneva sale in May, the first time it has been on the market.
The pear-shaped, 6.16-carat, fancy dark grey-blue stone — originally given to Queen Elisabeth Farnese of Spain as a wedding gift following her marriage to King Philip V in 1714 — has spent 300 years in the private collection of Europe’s royal families. The diamond will go under the hammer at the Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction on May 15 with an estimated price of $3.7 million to $5.3 million. Originating in the Golconda mines of India, it has traveled from Spain to France, Italy and Austria over the last three centuries.
The family kept the diamond in a secret royal casket, and, other than family members and the royal jewelers, no one knew of its existence.
“With its incredible pedigree, the Farnese Blue ranks among the most important historic diamonds in the world,” said Philipp Herzog von Württemberg, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and managing director of Sotheby’s Germany.
Queen Elisabeth passed the Farnese Blue to her son Philip, duke of Parma, whose son Ferdinand inherited it and passed it to his son Louis I, king of Etruria. Louis’s grandson, Charles II, duke of Lucca, passed it to his grandson, Robert I, the last ruling duke of Parma, who took the stone from Italy to Austria. He then mounted the stone on a diadem that had belonged to his mother, Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois. Upon the death of Robert I, the stone passed to his son Elias of Bourbon, duke of Parma. His wife, Maria Anna von Habsburg — who died in 1940 — recorded the stone’s history.
The Farnese Blue will appear at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, London, New York, Singapore and Taipei, before coming to Geneva for display prior to the sale.
Source: diamonds.net
According to reports, the Nimbus Airline An 12 cargo plane’s hatch opened mid take off allowing the goods to fall out.
The incident occurred at Yakutsk airport in Eastern Siberia on Thursday, The Siberian Times reported.
Yakutsk is in Siberia’s diamond producing region.
Images appear to show the large bars scattered across the runway while another picture shows the large hole in the cargo section of the plane.
Police sealed off the runway and a vast search is underway for the missing items.
It’s thought that the cargo belonged to Chukota Mining and Geological Company. Canadian Kinross Gold have a 75 per cent share in the company.
An investigation is now underway as to how the hatch managed to open and whether any staff were involved in the incident.
Technical engineers at the airport have been detained.