The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)
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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.
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
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 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
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.