Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) - A rough tender in Dubai raised almost $60m as TAGS reported "extraordinarily strong demand".

It says all 87,000 carats on offer were sold during the week-long event at at the Dubai Diamond Exchange.

"We achieved by far the highest prices we have seen since before the COVID-19 crisis," said a spokesman for Trans Atlantic Gem Sales DMCC (TAGS).

Around 150 companies, mostly from India, took appointments and 60 made purchases. Some had to cancel due to positive COVID-19 results on arrival in UAE and the sale was extended for two days.

Regular from many other centers were absent because of ongoing travel restrictions and quarantine regulations.

At last November's sale TAGS sold almost all the 45,000 carats on offer for a total of $35m to $40m....

(IDEX Online) - An American rapper is to have a huge natural pink diamond, valued at $24m, embedded in his forehead.

Lil Uzi Vert, 26, told fans he'd been paying for the gem - which he describes as "10 almost 11 carats" since 2017 and it was now time to have it implanted. It cost more than his Bugatti, other cars and house, he said.

Vert - real name Symere Bysil Woods, from Philadelphia - explained why he hadn't chosen a more traditional setting for the diamond.

"If I lose the ring yeah U will make fun of me more than putting it in my forehead ha ha jokes on you…" he tweeted.

He reportedly bought the diamond from Elliot Eliantte, the go-to jeweler for big-money rappers. Vert gives no details on his Twitter account of the procedure to embed it.

Pic from Lil Uzi Vert's Twitter account...

(IDEX Online) - Debswana, which controls most of Botswana's diamond production, saw rough exports down 30 per cent in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic.

Foreign sales were down from $3.05bn in 2019 to $2.02bn in 2020, according to the Bank of Botswana.

The country is the world's second largest producer of diamonds after Russia, and relies on them for 30 per cent of its revenue nationally. 

The Botswana government and De Beers jointly operate the Debswana Diamond Company, which controls the Damtshaa, Jwaneng, Letlhakane and Orapa mines, on a 50/50 basis.

Botswana, which has had 21,293 Covid cases and 134 deaths, closed its border for most of 2020, barring international travelers from most of the De Beers Sights....