Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) - Antwerp's rough exports for October were up 82 per cent by carat and 75 per cent by value year-on-year, further fueling hopes of a sustained recovery from the pandemic.

Newly-released figures from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) show increases rough imports are not far behind, up 78 per cent by carat and 65 per cent by value.

Trade in polished gems, a far smaller sector, has yet to show the same positive signs. October imports were down 16 per cent year-on-year in carats (35 per cent in value) and exports were down eight per cent in carats (40 per cent in value).

The rough recovery reflects strong performances by Gem Diamonds which achieved a Q3 average of $2,215 per carat - higher than pre-Covid - and Alrosa which raised $6.9m at a specials tender in Antwerp.

Total rough exports for October were $957m (10.5m carats) and imports were $873m (9.7m carats).

Pic shows Antwerp Diamond Club trading floor...

In the race to pretend to debase, Europe’s central bank has pulled ahead of America’s. The ECB’s balance of digitally-printed bank reserves is rising fast while the Federal Reserve’s reserves plateaued months ago. For the first time in its history, the Europeans claim “excess liquidity” (their term) in excess of €3.3 trillion and steadily rising.

Gold is in the early stages of its third great bull run that will take it to record heights. The first two great bull markets were 1971-1980 (gold up 2,200%) and 1999-2011 (gold up 760%). After peaking in 2011, gold fell sharply from that peak to below $1,100 per ounce by 2015.

(IDEX Online) - Dominion, the troubled Canadian miner, is to recall about 60 furloughed employees in the hope that that its Ekati mine will soon resume operations.

The deposit has been closed since March and Dominion, the world's third largest producer of rough diamonds by value, subsequently filed for insolvency protection.

It expects to reach agreement soon to restructure its debt and secure funding to re-open the mine next month.

The miner is recalling a small team now so that employees will be able to comply with COVID-19 isolation protocols and be ready for work.

Dominion's insolvency protection runs out on 15 December. As well as owning the Ekati mine it also jointly owns the nearby Diavik mine with Rio Tinto.

Dominion was on the brink of agreeing a $146m rescue deal for Ekati (pictured) with subsidiaries of The Washington Companies last month, but it fell through at the last minute.

Ekati closed in March, with the owners citing concerns over COVID-19 and warning its 1,800 employees that it could be months before they returned to work....