News – Page 94 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Tiffany Provides Glimpse into Future Store Design

The brand’s innovative ‘style studio’ in London may be a preview of what to expect on Fifth Avenue.

With Tiffany & Co. refurbishing its flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, there is a buzz of speculation on how the retailer plans to make the shop more interactive and appealing to millennials, as it has vowed to do. What people may not know, however, is that Tiffany has already made a similar move in London, opening a new, modern store that strikes a different tone than the one many consumers associate with the brand.

It may also provide a glimpse of how the famous Manhattan branch will ultimately shape up, since we’ll have to wait until the end of 2021 to see that one in its completed form.

A tale of two UK stores

The jeweler’s main London store, on upmarket Old Bond Street in the city’s retail-focused West End, couldn’t be more classic Tiffany. Its hanging sign, flagpole and clock help it blend in with the Cartier and Gucci shops around it, though the frontage is perhaps slightly more daring and appealing than some of its luxury neighbors’ stuffy window displays.

A mile to the east, Tiffany’s new “style studio” in the more informal Covent Garden neighborhood is a different type of space entirely. Situated in a trendy spot for tourists, it’s a light, enticing attraction for the millennial visitor, with large undecorated windows and a fresh interior that does away with the intimidating atmosphere luxury retailers can sometimes create.

Beyond jewelry

The room’s imaginative decor includes striking wall designs and simple tables that make browsing easy and fun. There are few or no engagement rings on display; the store mainly stocks fashion jewelry and other items, including products from Tiffany’s home-and-accessories line. There’s also a space in the back for events. On the day this reporter visited, that area had free ice cream on offer for a limited time, and customers seemed interested in what they were seeing.

Indeed, Tiffany calls the new location a “style studio” because it’s more than a jewelry store. A Tiffany-blue vending machine dispenses fragrances. Customers can draw images on a flat screen and then watch while workers engrave those designs onto jewelry or emboss them in leather. There’s also a Starbucks-like feel: Visitors can perch on stools at tables, charging their phones and laptops while they wait for their friends to turn up. An assistant said the store would serve coffee if a customer were sitting around long enough.

It’s unlikely to be an absolute blueprint for Tiffany’s Manhattan store of the future: That branch gets a fair chunk of its revenue from engagement rings and other high-end jewelry, which may require a different atmosphere. Yet Tiffany has said innovation will be central to the transformation of its flagship as it seeks to create a “dramatic new experience for customers.” It would be surprising if none of the Covent Garden space’s features ended up on Fifth Avenue.

Source:diamonds.net

Petra Diamonds keeps founder Pouroulis as chairman

South Africa’s Petra Diamonds is keeping founder Adonis Pouroulis as chairman, despite some shareholders voting against his renewal at the 2018 annual general meeting.

The company, which last month appointed former gold miner Richard Duffy as chief executive effective in April, said the appointment of a new chair was “not appropriate” at this time.

Petra said the board and nomination committee had considered the 22.12% vote against Pouroulis’ re-election as chairman in the context of Petra’s ongoing three-year succession plan.

Despite concerns raised by some shareholders, the diamond miner said the current chairman continued to “demonstrate the independence of thought and challenge required for his role, notwithstanding the number of years he has served as a director.”

Pouroulis founded Petra in 1997 and has been its chairman ever since.

The company has been seeking to turn around its fortunes after piling up debt to expand its iconic Cullinan mine, in South Africa, where the world’s largest-ever diamond was found in 1905.

Source:mining.com

Russia’s Alrosa sells diamonds worth $14.6 mln at Hong Kong auctions

Russia’s diamond producer Alrosa sold rough and polished diamonds in the amount of $14.6 mln at auctions in Hong Kong, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company auctioned special size (above 10.8 carats) rough diamonds. Alrosa sold 101 diamonds with the total weight of 1,829 carats. Total revenues after the auction amounted to $10.5 mln, the company said.

“Considering the positive results of the auction, we can note that the demand for diamonds of the size category exceeding 10.8 carats remains stable,” said Evgeny Agureev, Member of the Alrosa’s Management Board.

Alrosa also staged an auction for polished diamonds. “The company sold 56 stones with a total weight of almost 300 carats, most of which are fancy colored diamonds (238 carats). That amount included two fancy yellow diamonds of “cushion” cut, weighing 31 and 30 carats, their total value at the auction amounted to $815,000,” Alrosa noted. Total revenues of the polished diamond auction equaled $4.1 mln.

The Russian company is engaged in exploration, production and sale of diamonds. The company produces diamonds on the territory of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Arkhangelsk Region. The company’s shareholders are the Russian Federation represented by the Federal Property Management Agency (33.02%), the Sakha Region (Yakutia) – 25%, districts of Yakutia – 8%. That being said, 34% of shares are in free float.

Source:http://tass.com

De Beers, Botswana to expand world’s richest diamond mine

Botswana’s Debswana Diamond Mining, a joint venture between De Beers and the southern Africa country’s government, have awarded Thiess’ subsidiary CIMIC a $1.2-billion contract to extend the lifespan of their Jwaneng mine.

Jwaneng, which began operations in 1982, is currently 650 metres deep, but its owners want to deepen the pit to 830 meters (2,700 feet), which will allow continuing operations for another 11 years, to 2035, and extracting a further 53 million carats.

Debswana will invest approximately $2 billion over the life of the project, dubbed Cut 9, which involves removing waste from the bottom of the mine to both widen and deepen the pit.
“Jwaneng, which began operations in 1982, will continue in operations unit 2035.”

At its peak, Cut-9 is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, the majority of which will be held by locals.

“With global consumer demand for diamonds reaching record levels in 2018, the extension will enable us to continue to meet the needs of our consumers all over the world,” Debswana’s chairman Bruce Cleaver said in the statement.

This is not the first time Debswana decides to invest in expanding Jwaneng, the world’s No.1 diamond producing mine by value, which contributes almost 70% of the partnership’s total revenue.

The company completed in November a $3-billion, 10-year-long expansion plan, Cut 8, which extended the lifespan of the mine to 2024.

Debswana was formed in 1969 as a 50/50 partnership between the Botswana’s government and De Beers Group. The unit is a significant contributor to the country’s economy with more than 80% of its profits going back to Botswana’s citizens.

Diamonds from Debswana bring in about 50% of public revenue, representing 33% of GDP and over 80% of foreign earnings to Botswana.

Source: mining.com

Lucapa finds fourth +50 carat diamond at Mothae mine in Lesotho

Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) has recovered an 83.9 carat diamond from its recently commissioned Mothae mine in Lesotho, Africa.

The stone is the fourth diamond over 50 carats the company has recovered to date at its 70%-owned Mothae operation.

While the find was not gem-quality, Lucapa says it continues to underline the large-stone nature of the kimberlite resource.

Commercial production at the mine, which the Perth-based company acquired in early 2017, began in December via a new 1.1 million tonne-per-year plant that is progressively ramping up to its nameplate capacity.

“While the 83.9 carat diamond was not gem-quality, Lucapa says the find continues to underline the large-stone nature of the kimberlite resource.”

The government of Lesotho owns the remaining 30% of Mothae, which is located 5km from Letšeng, the world’s highest dollars-per-carat kimberlite diamond operation.

“We are highly encouraged that the coarse size fraction in our recently commenced commercial production through the new 1.1-million-tonne-a-year Mothae plant is reinforcing why Lucapa invested in this second high-value resource to complement production from the Lulo mine in Angola,” said managing director Stephen Wetherall.

Lucapa plans to update guidance for the mine in respect of volume, grade and price in the June quarter after the first quarter of commercial mining operations.

Mothae is currently expected to yield 22,000 carats per year.

Lucapa also has a 40% stake in the prolific Lulo mine in Angola, a source of the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds.

Currently, the company is advancing two exploration projects in well-known diamond districts. One is at Brooking in the West Kimberley lamproite province of Western Australia. The other is a the Orapa Area F project in its namesake mine in Botswana, where it plans to drill kimberlite targets this year.

Shares in the company closed at 19 Australian cents on Friday, 2.7% higher than the previous day, though it remains near its year-low of 16.5 cents and well below last May’s high of 31 cents.

Source: mining.com

Russian diamond miner Alrosa wants controlling stake to mine in Zimbabwe

Russian state-controlled miner Alrosa will assess the quality of Zimbabwe’s diamond reserves over the next six months but would only start mining if it can take a majority stake in such a project, the company’s chief executive said on Monday.

Zimbabwe is seeking to attract investment and has scrapped legislation that restricts foreign participation for some commodities. It has yet to do so for diamonds and platinum but has said that it will.

“Of course we’ll only be ready to participate in projects in cases where we can have management control and operational control of the assets,” Alrosa CEO Sergey Ivanov told Reuters.

That would mean a stake of at least 51 percent, he said, adding that he would be confident of achieving that if it gets to the stage of detailed discussions on how to advance a project.

Russia, along with China, has been a political ally of Zimbabwe since the days of its independence war against British rule, and this year Zimbabwe selected Alrosa and China’s Anjin Investments to partner its state diamond company.

Alrosa, the biggest diamond producer by volume, as well as Anglo American’s De Beers, the biggest in value terms, both say supply will shrink in the coming years as mines, such as Rio Tinto’s Argyle project, become depleted.

Laboratory-grown diamonds will add some supply. But Alrosa, like De Beers, says man-made stones are a separate market and have no re-sale value, in contrast to natural gems.

De Beers last year began marketing laboratory diamonds as jewelry for the first time, but Ivanov said that Alrosa has no interest in following suit.

The company is, however, expanding in Africa, where Zimbabwe and Angola remain under-explored.

Last year Alrosa said it was increasing its stake in Angola and Ivanov expects a deal to increase Alrosa’s stake in Angola, first flagged last year, will close “in the near future”. Alrosa and the Angolan government would each have a 41 percent stake, with the rest held by Chinese investors.

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Ivanov said stake size is not the only consideration and in Angola the company has reached agreement on corporate governance, transparency and has established an advisory board.

Alrosa is also protecting itself against the impact of U.S. sanctions by building trading infrastructure to allow transactions in currencies other than dollars, amounting to “a couple of percent” of its business.

He said it would not be rational to switch totally from dollars because that could distort the market.

“But in case there’s some geopolitical escalation, we should be able to switch to other currencies,” he said, citing Indian rupees, Chinese RMB and euros.

Russian Alrosa in talks with Tiffany on premium color diamonds

Russia’s top diamond producer Alrosa is in talks with Tiffany & Co on the supply of small sized rough diamonds of premium colors, Alrosa CEO Sergei Ivanov has said.

“We have a long standing good relationship with Tiffany. They value and have been buying Russian diamonds of a certain range,” Ivanov was quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Friday.

“They have additional needs, so we are in talks with them on premium colors and not just small sized raw materials. These are diamonds of small sizes, but of very high quality,” he said.

Ivanov did not mention the value of a possible contract, but said that it is “not a major one.”

Diamonds, with different colors, like pink, blue, orange, green and violet, are extremely rare and usually sold at premium prices.

Alrosa mines diamonds in the Russian Republic of Sakha Yakutia and the Arkhangelsk Region. Last year it produced 36.7 million carats of rough diamonds and its revenue from sales of diamond products amounted to 300 billion rubles 4.63 billion U.S. dollars.

After a series of one off supply deals with Laurelton Diamonds, a subsidiary of Tiffany & Co, Alrosa signed in 2012 a long-term supply contract with it, Alrosa said on its website. It did not disclose details of the deals.

Gem Diamonds nets $8.8 million for 13.3 carat pink

Africa-focused Gem Diamonds has sold a 13.33 carat pink diamond recovered at its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho last month for $8.8 million.

The high quality pink colour type I diamond sold at a tender in Antwerp, Belgium, achieving a record price per carat of almost $657,000.

The Letšeng mine is well known for yielding some extraordinary diamonds, At an average elevation of 3,100 metres above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.

According to market analysts, the average price for pink, yellow, blue and green stones has risen consistently by 12% a year over the last few decades, driven by consumer demand for exotic and unusual diamonds. This means they are less affected by other factors driving general diamonds’ supply and demand.

Gem Diamonds posts record results, but withholds dividend

Shares in Africa focused Gem Diamonds took a hit on Wednesday as the miner disappointed investors by withholding its full year dividend, citing uncertainty about the global diamond industry as one of the main reasons.

The London-listed miner, which reported a sharp increase in annual profit thanks to record recoveries of large diamonds, said it had decided to strengthen its balance sheet rather than pay a dividend,“following a review of the current state of the global market.”

The company’s stock dropped as much as 7.8% to 88.6p on the news and was still trading lower (-6.25%) in London mid-afternoon, extending its year to date decline to around 19%.

The diamond miner reported a sharp increase in annual profit thanks to record recoveries of large stones, but decided to strengthen its balance sheet rather than pay a dividend.Gem Diamonds reported a profit for the year of about $47 million, significantly more than the almost $21 million achieved, before exceptional items, in 2017.

Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased from $48.6 million in 2017 to $82.3 million in 2018, while earnings a share surged from 6.56c to 18.8c in the same period.

Gem Diamonds recovered 126,875 carats from its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the world’s highest dollar per carat diamond mine. Average value achieved was $2,131/ct or 10% more than the previous year.

The miner gets 80% of its revenue from diamonds larger than 10 carats, and 11% of its income comes from diamonds ranging between five and 10 carats in size. The balance of revenue is brought by smaller diamonds.

Thanks to that structure, it was not as exposed to the effects of weak prices and demand for tinier, lower-value stones as its peers, including De Beers, Alrosa and Petra Diamonds.

Gem, in fact, sold a total of 125,111 carats during the 2018 financial year, generating revenue of $267.3 million.

Letšeng mine produced a record 15 diamonds larger than 100 carats, including its largest ever diamond, the 910-carat “Lesotho Legend”, which sold for $40 million. The precious rock was the fifth largest ever found.

Since acquiring the operation in 2006, Gem Diamonds has found five of the 20 largest white gem quality diamonds ever recovered, which makes the mine the world’s highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond operation.

At an average elevation of 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines.

The biggest diamond ever found was the 3,106-carat Cullinan, dug near Pretoria, South Africa, in 1905. It was later cut into several stones, including the First Star of Africa and the Second Star of Africa, which are part of Britain’s Crown Jewels held in the Tower of London.

Source: mining.com

Petra Diamonds shares jump after another discovery at Cullinan

Cullinan-mine-100-carat-D-Colour-Type-II

South Africa’s Petra Diamonds has found a 100.83 carat gem quality diamond at its iconic Cullinan mine in South Africa.

The D colour, Type II diamond follows the recent recovery of a 6.12 carat Type II blue stone, also at Cullinan.

The company has piled up debt after building a new plant and digging deeper at its flagship Cullinan diamond mine.“The recoveries demonstrate the prevalence of these types of stones in the Cullinan orebody as well as the ability of the mine’s plant to recover the full spectrum of diamonds,” Petra said.

The company, which appointed last month former gold miner Richard Duffy as chief executive, said that both stones would be included in its upcoming March tender.

Shares climbed as much as 10.5% after the announcement, closing at 21.2p in London on Friday.

Petra has been seeking to turn around its fortunes after piling up debt to expand Cullinan, where the world’s biggest ever diamond was found in 1905.

Source: mining.com