News – Page 64 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Rough Shortages Could Last 10 Years, Bain Says

The current shortfall in rough production will likely continue for up to a decade, while both demand and prices will remain strong, according to Bain & Company.

Output fell 20% to 111 million carats in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic forced companies to shut deposits, Bain said Monday in “The Global Diamond Industry 2021-22,” the latest edition of its annual report on the sector. Production increased 4.5% to 116 million carats in 2021, when mines reopened. However, solid demand for diamond jewelry depleted resources, as did the closure of Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Australia, which accounted for 11 million carats a year.

“Demand was so strong, production levels had to be supplemented by inventory,” Bain partner Olya Linde told Rapaport News. “We have not seen such strong demand for a long time. Actually, I have not seen such a big boom in all my time in the industry. Going forward, it’s not that easy to just add production. So, while demand will continue to remain strong, the ability for players to increase production in the short term is very limited.”

Miners’ “technical” inventories — goods that have been extracted but are not yet ready for sale — fell to an all-time low of 29 million carats in 2021, Linde claimed.

Over the next five years, rough output is expected to grow between 1% and 2% annually, reaching just over 122 million carats by the end of 2022 — still 10% to 15% below pre-pandemic levels.

Rising jewelry demand

In 2021, demand for diamond jewelry rose 29% globally and 38% in the US, well above pre-pandemic figures. China, the second-largest market, showed similar growth, Linde noted.

“At the end of the consumer holiday season and coming into the new year, there is still a lot of interest and demand,” she explained. “Even in 2022, we can expect that demand will continue, probably not at the same level of recovery, but it will definitely be robust enough. Although we don’t have a crystal ball, and don’t know how prices will behave for sure, given that supply is limited, it sets a foundation to support very healthy price growth across categories.”

Lack of new supply

The dearth of new mines coming online as others go offline or approach their end of life is also contributing to the gloomy production forecast. While exploration is underway in Botswana, Angola, Australia and Canada, the only project that will significantly add to output in the near term is the Luaxe mine in Angola, Linde said.

“We do not expect production to recover to 139 million carats [seen in 2019] in the next five years, for sure, and even not in the next 10 years, honestly, unless there will be a major unexpected discovery that could be brought up to production fairly quickly,” she noted. “We have to remember not only do we have a very limited number of new projects, but existing mines also have declining production levels.”

Filling the hole

While availability will decrease across most categories, it is unlikely lab-grown diamonds will cover the natural-diamond shortfall, as they are doing well in their own, separate category, Linde said.

Growth in synthetics over the past year was likely supported by both a decrease in prices, as well as higher transaction volumes, she explained.

“I don’t believe that one category is taking market share away from the other,” she added. “If you look at last year, if the market is operating purely on substitution, you would be hard pressed to really say where all this demand is coming from. In the US, it far outgrew pre-pandemic levels. What that suggests to me is that there are additional consumers that are coming to make lab-grown diamond purchases that we have not seen before in the diamond sector.”

Source: Diamonds.net

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Record Lab-Grown Stone Turns Up at GIA

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) recently graded the largest known synthetic diamond to be created using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), it claimed Wednesday.

The stone, produced by Shanghai Zhengshi Technology, is a princess-cut, 16.41 carat, G colour, VVS2 clarity lab grown diamond. Spectroscopic readings the GIA performed confirmed the stone had no post growth treatments to improve the color, it noted.

“The first CVD diamond I examined in 2003 was a 0.23 carat pear shape, with clear brown colour,” said Wuyi Wang, GIA vice president of research and development. “This 16.41 carat laboratory grown diamond demonstrates the advances in CVD growth technology. This achievement has important implications for the many scientific and industrial applications for high quality laboratory grown diamonds.”

The previous record for a synthetic diamond grown using CVD was held by an emerald cut, 14.60 carat, F colour, VS2 clarity diamond, which was produced in India and graded by the International Gemological Institute (IGI). Meanwhile, the record for the largest lab grown diamond the GIA has examined was in 2019 for a cushion cut, 20.23 carat, fancy vivid yellowish orange, VS2 clarity stone made using High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT).

Source: Diamonds.net

Debswana annual diamond sales jump 64%

*Jwaneng, the richest diamond mine in the world by value, is Debswana’s flagship mine, contributing 60% to 70% of the company’s total revenue.*

Sales of rough diamonds by Debswana Diamond Company jumped 64% in 2021, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed on Monday, driven by the reopening of key global consumer markets.

The total value of Debswana’s diamond exports stood at $3.466 billion in 2021 compared with $2.120 billion in 2020, the central bank data showed.

Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American unit De Beers and Botswana’s government, sells 75% of its output to De Beers with the balance taken up by the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company.

Debswana sales fell by 30% in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand while global travel restrictions impacted trading. Since mid-2020 De Beers has shifted some of its rough diamond viewings to international diamond centres such as Antwerp to cater for customers unable to travel to Gaborone.

“Demand for rough diamonds remained robust, with positive midstream sentiment and strong demand for diamond jewellery continuing over the holiday period, particularly in the key U.S. consumer market,” Anglo American said in a production update last Thursday.

Debswana accounts for almost all Botswana’s diamond exports, with Lucara Diamond Corp’s Karowe mine being the only other operating diamond mine in the country.

Botswana gets about 30% of its revenues and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings from diamonds. The southern African country expects its economy to have grown by 9.7% in 2021, after an 8.5% contraction in 2020.

Debswana’s production increased by 35% to 22.326 million carats in 2021 from 16.559 million carats in 2020, mostly due to higher-grade ore being treated at its flagship Jwaneng mine, Anglo American said.

Russia’s Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds and a competitor of De Beers, reported revenue jumped by 49% to $4.2 billion last year as demand exceeded supply.

Source: mining.com

Yellow Gems Top a Year of Discoveries at the Crater of Diamonds

By the end of summer 2021, park guests had found 255 diamonds, including four weighing over one carat. Autumn kicked off with a big surprise for one California couple, when Noreen Wredberg and her husband, of Granite Bay, visited the Crater of Diamonds for the first time.

Wredberg was walking on the north side of a central pathway through the search area on September 23 when she spotted something sparkling on top of the ground. Her find turned out to be the largest of the year, a 4.38-carat diamond about the size of a jellybean, with a pear shape and a lemonade yellow color. Wredberg named her gem after her husband’s kitten, calling it Lucy’s Diamond.

The three most common colors of diamonds found at the Crater are white, brown, and yellow. 248 diamonds registered last year were white (weighing 28.6 carats), 54 were brown (16.67 carats), and 52 were yellow (17.02 carats). Interestingly, all nine of the largest diamonds found last year were yellow or brown in color.

Source: txktoday

Influential Large-Stone Expert Johnny Kneller Dies

The diamond industry lost one of its most respected experts in large stones with the passing of Johnny Kneller last week at age 75.

Together with Brian Gutkin and Laurence Graff, Kneller was a partner in the manufacturing firm Safdico, where he handled some of the world’s most famous diamonds. Those included the Lesotho Promise, the Peace Diamond, and the Lesedi La Rona, his son-in-law Yves Alexis noted.

“He was an icon in the industry,” Gutkin stressed. “People sought his advice on large stones, colored diamonds, D-flawlesses because he had a unique understanding of these goods.”

And he was always happy to give of himself, Gutkin added. “It was impossible to walk with him through the Antwerp bourse, as people would gravitate toward him. Everyone loved him.”

Born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, in 1946, Kneller grew up in Antwerp and eased into the diamond trade through his father, who was a diamantaire and a De Beers sightholder specializing in large stones. Kneller also worked as a dealer and started traveling to South Africa to buy polished in the early 1980s. During that time, he met Gutkin and the two formed a partnership that became Safdico, Gutkin recalled.

Starting with only seven people, the company grew to become one of the most consistent sightholders for large goods. At its peak, Safdico employed 237 people at its Johannesburg factory and 120 in Botswana, according to Gutkin.

Kneller was extremely savvy in business and not averse to taking calculated risks, Gutkin and Alexis agreed. It was his initiative around 1998 to bring on board Graff, with whom he had a relationship and who had traded diamonds with Kneller’s father. The partnership made Safdico one of the first diamond manufacturers to forge an alliance with an established high-end jeweler.

“Johnny Kneller was a best friend as well as my business partner in our diamond-manufacturing business.” Graff wrote in a tribute provided to Rapaport News. “A man that put all others before himself, we were friends for 50 years and traveled together to Belgium, Africa and the US — and of course to many of the diamond sights.”

Kneller’s knowledge of the rough and polished diamond business was almost unmatched, Graff continued. “He had an uncanny way of discovering gems, in rough or polished, which ended up in our retail stores across the world,” he added.

Kneller’s eye for fine gems extended to art as well. He was a keen collector of contemporary works and had a solid background across many periods — a passion he shared with Graff.

But it was ultimately his expertise and love of diamonds that set him apart within the trade. “He really loved the stones, the material, to see the color [and] appreciate the cut, life and sparkle of the stones,” Alexis recalled.

His business partners echoed that sentiment.

“He lived and breathed diamonds all his life,” Graff concluded. “For me he was the greatest diamond dealer I have ever known.”

Kneller is survived by his wife, Delly, two daughters Katya and Julie, and six grandchildren.

Source: Diamonds.net

Diacore Buys 32ct. Pink Diamond

Manufacturer Diacore has purchased a rough pink diamond weighing 32.32 carats for $13.8 million.

The stone originated from Petra Diamonds’ Williamson mine in Tanzania, Diacore said last week. It was among the goods Petra offered at its first tender of Williamson rough since the resumption of operations at the site following a near two-year shutdown due to Covid-19. Diacore will analyze, design and cut the diamond.

“This rare masterpiece of nature is a natural fit to our unique offering as cutters and marketers of special diamonds,” said Diacore chairman Nir Livnat.

The pink is not the first colored diamond Diacore has purchased from the miner. In July, it partnered with De Beers to buy a blue diamond of 39.34 carats from Petra’s Cullinan mine in South Africa for $40.2 million. Last year, the two bought five rough blue diamonds from the same deposit ranging from 9.61 to 25.75 carats for a combined $40.4 million.

In June, Diacore acquired a 204.36-carat, yellow diamond known as the Dancing Sun — the largest polished diamond of North American origin — for $5 million at a Christie’s auction in New York.

Source: Diamonds.net

Sotheby’s to Offer 39-Piece Lalique Collection

Sotheby’s will hold a sale dedicated to the works of René Lalique, featuring nearly 40 pieces collected over four decades.

The jewels, which make up a “rare museum-quality collection,” are all appearing at auction for the first time, Sotheby’s said last week. Assembled by Claude Sorbac, one of Lalique’s greatest fans, the grouping is set to go under the hammer on December 17 in Paris.

The Orchidée Cattleya comb, created between 1903 and 1905, is the star of the show. Sorbac bought the piece in 1976 from Lalique’s heirs. The largest of a series of three, and containing diamond-studded foliage, the comb is estimated at up to EUR 1.5 million ($1.7 million).

Other notable items include the Loving Swallows comb, made around 1905 or 1906, which was also purchased from the artist’s descendants. It is valued at EUR 400,000 to EUR 600,000 ($450,660 to $675,906).

Meanwhile, two glass, enamel and diamond necklaces will be up for sale. The first, named Frogs, carries an estimate of EUR 400,000 to EUR 600,000, while the second, called Dragonflies and Ferns, is valued at EUR 250,000 ($281,627) to EUR 400,000.

Source: Diamonds.net

Tiffany Necklace Breaks Records at Sotheby’s

*The Medusa necklace designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany*

The Medusa necklace, one of the earliest pieces designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, sold for more than 18 times its high estimate at a recent Sotheby’s auction.

The piece, designed in 1904, was last seen at auction 78 years ago. It fetched $3.7 million against an upper estimate of $200,000 following 10 minutes of heated bidding, Sotheby’s said Wednesday. The pendant set a world auction record for a piece by the designer. In total, the December 7 Magnificent Jewels sale achieved $57.1 million, the second-highest figure for a jewelry auction at Sotheby’s New York.

Blue diamonds also performed well, with a cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut, 6.11-carat, fancy-intense-blue diamond ring garnering $8 million, or $1.3 million per carat, well above its high estimate. A ring bearing a cushion-cut, 3.01-carat, fancy-vivid-blue diamond flanked by two heart-shaped diamonds sold for $3.9 million, or $1.3 million per carat, within expectations.

Other notable items include a group of jewels from an American private collector, which features one of the largest private collections of Bulgari pieces ever to come to market, Sotheby’s noted. Some 93% of those items found buyers, realizing $9 million, above their combined $8.2 million high estimate.

Meanwhile, a ring set with a pear-shaped, 62.65-carat, D-color, VVS2-clarity diamond bracketed by two pear-shaped diamonds weighing 2.04 carats and 2.01 carats fetched $2.9 million, in the middle of its presale valuation. A ring containing a cut-cornered rectangular step-cut, 1.03-carat, fancy-red diamond framed by shield-shaped diamonds hammered for $2 million, the upper end of its estimate.

Sotheby’s sold 84% of goods on offer, with 68% of those achieving prices above their high estimates and 13 pieces going for more than $1 million. Participants came from more than 45 countries.

Source: Diamonds.net

Botswana’s Debswana diamond sales jump 73% in first nine months of 2021

Sales of rough diamonds by Debswana Diamond Company jumped 73% in the first nine months of 2021, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed on Tuesday, driven by the reopening of U.S. and China’s consumer markets.

Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American business De Beers and the Botswana government, sells 75% of its output to De Beers, with the balance taken up by state-owned Okavango Diamond Company.

Debswana sales fell by 30% in 2020 as the covid-19 pandemic hit demand while global travel restrictions hurt trading.

Botswana closed its borders for eight months last year in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, effectively locking out foreign buyers from centres such as Mumbai, Antwerp and China, who traditionally travel to Gaborone 10 times a year to view and buy diamonds from De Beers.

Since mid-2020 De Beers has shifted some of its rough viewings to places closer to international diamond centres, such as Antwerp, to cater for customers unable to travel to Gaborone.

According to data published by the central bank, exports of diamonds from Debswana stood at $2.589 billion in the first nine months of the year compared with $1.498 billion in the same period last year.

Botswana makes about 30% of its revenue and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings from diamonds. While it has taken measures to diversify its dependence on a single commodity, diamond sales continue to be its main revenue earner.

De Beers’ sales softened by 4% in the current sales period, which ended last week, as Indian manufacturers closed factories ahead of the Diwali festival, though the company said diamond jewellery demand remained strong in the United States.

Source: mining.com