Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa has announced a second extension to existing three-year rough diamond supply contracts.

It says the move will help buyers respond to ongoing market uncertainties as a result of the global pandemic.

The state-owned Russian miner usually analyzes trading activity at the year end, to determine who will be on its long-term client list and what product mix they'll be offered.

It said last October that the assessment would be postponed until March, and now it has announced another three-month extension.

"This decision allows for increasing the purchase history relevance after the pandemic-related pause in 2020 in order to use it for drafting an offer that would fully meet the clients' actual requirements," the company said.

"The adaptation of our supply to the real demand is aimed at ensuring support for an emerging supply demand balance."

Diamond sales under long-term contracts account for about 70 per cent of Alrosa's total revenue.

"We are extending our existing long-term contracts and formalising our recent months' practice of working upon clients' requests without mandatory allocation of goods," said Evgeny Agureev (pictured), Alrosa's deputy CEO.

"This will allow us to support the real confirmed demand and maintain an equilibrium of the industry."...

Citigroup expanded its business with Greensill despite repeated warnings internally not to do so because of reputational risks.

(IDEX Online) - An aristocrat's novelty pig-shaped ruby and diamond evening bag fetched $150,000 at auction - way above its high estimate of just $4,000.

The 1905 piece, made by the Paris-based Lacloche Frères, has eyes set with cabochon rubies, the tail and trotters set with rose-cut diamonds and a line of cushion-shaped diamonds along the spine.

Sotheby's London offered the bag in a sale of jewelry and heirlooms owned by the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, a first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh, and a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She died in 2017.

Other items in the auction included Queen Victoria's mourning jewels, which sold for $138,000 and her late husband's customized 1967 Jaguar 420, which fetched $172,000.  The sale yesterday netted a total of $7.7m.

Pic courtesy Sotheby's ...

Ready or not, a higher cost of living is dead ahead. Many things we buy are already more expensive—gasoline, computers, cars, and houses. And prices won’t cool off anytime soon, since manufacturers are reporting shortages of raw materials… shipping container costs have tripled over the last year… and many commodity price charts look like a Bitcoin chart.