News – Page 109 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Royal Blue Diamond Surfaces After 300 Years

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

Plane loses £263m cargo of gold and diamonds during take off

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.

“The Lesotho Legend” sells for $40 million

Gem Diamonds recovered the 910 carat rough diamond in January.

The world’s fifth biggest gem quality diamond ever found has sold for $40 million , the company that found the massive rough diamond reported.

Gem Diamonds mined the D colourType IIa rough diamond at its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho.

The Lesotho Legend was purchased by an anonymous buyer in Antwerp, the company said.

Prior to “The Lesotho Legend,” the largest rough diamond recovered at Letšeng was a 603 carat named Lesotho Promise.

Type of ice found trapped in a diamond new to science

Ice VII inclusions found within diamonds is evidence for aqueous fluid in deep in Earth’s mantle.

The inclusions a high pressure form of water called ice VII present in diamonds sourced from between 410 and 660 km depth, the part of the mantle known as the transition zone.

The transition zone is a region where the stable minerals have high water storage capacity.

The inclusions suggest that local aqueous pockets form at the transition zone boundary owing to the release of chemically bound water as rock cycles in and out of this region.

Ice VII is about one and a half times more dense than regular ice but unlike the other phases of ice ice VII remains fairly stable even as the pressure increases.

Gem Diamonds sixth large rough diamond for this year

Gem Diamonds at an elevation of 3,100 meters above sea level, The Letšeng Diamond mine is one of the world’s highest diamond mines.

The Letšeng Diamond Mine is having an extraordinary year this far as the miner continues to recover rough diamonds larger than 100 carats at its mine in Lesotho.

On Wednesday, the company announced it had recovered a 152 carat D colour type IIa diamond, the sixth exceptional large rough diamond so far this year.

Firestar Chief Speaks Out on Modi Crisis

Firestar Diamond and its affiliates, following their bankruptcy filing in the wake of fraud allegations against their ultimate owner Nirav Modi, have reported significant interest from companies looking to buy their operations.

The three jewelers — Firestar, A. Jaffe and Fantasy — are seeking an infusion of capital or a sale, and intend to continue business as normal in the meantime, their president, Mihir Bhansali, said in a court filing last week. The companies have suffered a significant impact to their supply chains since accusations against Modi emerged last month.

The trio’s Chapter 11 process will “add a sense of order,” alleviate some of the concerns that its suppliers and clients have showed, and create a forum for potential purchasers of the businesses, Bhansali explained.

“Early expressions of interest in purchasing some of or all of the debtors’ business operations have been strong,” the executive said in the February 28 filing. “The debtors intend to act quickly and efficiently to determine which of the available restructuring options is in the best interests of the estates, and to preserve the…value of the debtors’ substantial business operations.”

Firestar and Fantasy are in talks with their banks about providing the liquidity the companies need to sustain their operations until they reach a sale, Bhansali continued. A. Jaffe, which has no secured lenders — a term for those who get paid before other creditors — is also in discussions with suppliers and potential financing sources.

Source: diamonds.net

Israel Gives $284M Boost to Diamond Trade

The Israeli government has pledged $284 million (NIS 1 billion) to guarantee bank loans to diamond companies in an effort to ease the trade’s severe credit difficulties.

A lack of credit is stifling growth, especially among the smaller firms that constitute about 70% of the Israeli trade, according to a special committee set up to investigate the sector’s challenges.

The team — led by Naama Kaufman-Pass, deputy director-general of the nation’s Ministry of Economy and Industry — released its findings earlier this month, highlighting several ways in which the industry had hit a crisis.

Banks’ perception of the diamond sector as high-risk has led to a decline in total lending to the Israeli trade from $2.5 billion in 2008 to about $1 billion last year, the committee said in its report. Financial institutions are also refusing to accept dealers’ inventory as collateral, while competition from India and Belgium has added further damage to Israel’s market position.

To this end, the government fund will back companies’ borrowing, meaning that if they fail to repay a loan to a bank, the state will pay. While the committee submitted the policy to Eli Cohen, minister of industry and economy, as a recommendation, the lawmaker said the government was set to go ahead with the program.

“We have decided to allocate another billion shekels over the next five years to the diamond sector through credit guarantees,” Cohen told an audience at the International Diamond Week in Israel last week.

In addition, the committee suggested the government provide money for the bourse’s newly launched innovation laboratory, put cash into bringing more diamond buyers to Israel, support efforts to develop e-commerce opportunities, and contribute to other projects to boost the industry.

“The committee identified the main hurdles in small businesses’ activities in the sector, and its recommendations offer a comprehensive response to its needs,” Kaufman-Pass said.

The diamond trade is an important segment of the Israeli economy, representing about 13% of total exports, and employing about 9,500 people, according to the report. However, the 2008 global financial crash led to a 27% slump in Israel’s polished-diamond exports between that year and 2016, with the Chinese market slump in 2015 also denting demand.

“Implementing the committee’s conclusions, alongside other steps, is essential, considering the crisis the sector has been through,” Cohen added in a statement. “Their purpose is to provide new tools to help deal with challenges in the trade and to ease regulation, thereby growing both production and exports.”

Shay Rinsky, director-general of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, set up the committee in September to delve into issues of credit and growth in the diamond trade and examine how to bring the industry forward.

Source: diamonds.net

Lucapa recovers more diamonds at Lesotho mine

Australia’s Lucapa Diamond has announced workers at its 70% owned Mothae mine in Lesotho have recovered diamonds sourced from residual material and kimberlite stockpiles.

The company said the rough diamonds were recovered through the existing bulk sampling plant and infrastructure at Mothae, which has been refurbished ahead of schedule as part of a previously announced bulk sampling program.

According to the statement the largest rough diamond recovered in the test run is 6.6 carats.

World’s largest rarest and most valuable D Flawless round diamond

102.34 carat D colour Flawless round diamond

To celebrate its one year anniversary, this morning Sotheby’s Diamonds revealed its most exceptional gem to date: a 102.34 carat, D Flawless, Type IIA round brilliant diamond, which the auction house describes as “the rarest and most valuable white diamond ever to come to market”.

The diamond was cut from a 425-carat rough mined by the De Beers group in Botswana. The cutting process took over six months and required the diamond to be transported between Johannesburg and New York.

New Guidelines Clarify: ‘Diamond’ Means ‘Natural’

Leading groups in the diamond and jewelry sectors have collaborated to publish a universal standard to use when referring to natural diamonds and synthetics.

The Diamond Terminology Guideline is a reference on diamond vocabulary for all sector organizations, traders and retailers to use, nine industry bodies said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The document stipulates that the words “diamond” and “gemstone” imply natural origin. The industry should use “synthetic,” “laboratory-grown” or “laboratory-created,” and should avoid the terms “real,” “genuine” and “authentic,” when describing such man-made products.

“Protecting consumer confidence is of paramount importance to the long-term success of our industry,” World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) president Gaetano Cavalieri said. “The Diamond Terminology Guideline is an important tool in achieving this, by helping standardize the terminology used to clearly distinguish between diamonds and synthetic diamonds, in all communications, among ourselves and with our customers.”

The guidelines are based on the ISO Standard 18323 for jewelry and on CIBJO’s diamond Blue Book, which are internationally accepted benchmarks in the field.

The parties that created the document, in addition to CIBJO, are: the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the Israel Diamond Industry (IDI), the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), the US Jewelry Council (USJC), the World Diamond Council (WDC) and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFBD).

Source: diamonds.net

DCLA provides reports for natural origin Diamonds only.