Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) - Australian miner Lucapa has reported another record month of carat recoveries at its Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.

Gravel deposits in the MB06 leziria area yielded 3,852 carats in August, including 52 specials, beating the company's record in July of 3,462 carats.  The largest diamond recovered from the area is a 61-carat white D-colour Type IIa.

"This is the second consecutive month in which a carat recovery record has been achieved by the team at Lulo in spite of the challenges placed on personnel movement and the operations as a result of COVID-19," it said.

Lulo has produced 15 +100 carat diamonds so far and is one of the highest average US$ per carat alluvial diamond producers in the world.

Managing director Stephen Wetherall said: "This is further evidence of the very special resource that exists at Lulo and why Lucapa and its partners continues to search for the source of these magnificent diamonds."

Last month Lucapa restructured $13m of loan repayments after the pandemic saw its rough sales plunge by 80 per cent because of the pandemic.

File pic shows Lulo alluvial rough
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(IDEX Online) - The iconic Argyle mine is selling a collection of 62 diamonds, weighing just 57.23 carats, in one of its last tenders before production ceases.

The headline "hero" item in its 2020 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender is the Argyle Eternity, a 2.24 carat round brilliant fancy vivid purplish pink diamond - the largest stone of its type the mine has ever offered for sale.

There are five other "heroes" -  very much prized for their color rather than size - including a 0.43-carat princess-shaped fancy deep grayish violetish blue diamond and a 0.33-carat heart-shaped fancy dark gray-violet diamond.

The Argyle mine in Western Australia, has been the source of 90 per cent of the world's pink diamonds for almost four decades, but owners Rio Tinto are due to close it this November as the cost of extraction becomes uneconomic. 

Only invited buyers can bid for the stones, which have been previewed virtually and which will be available for inspection later in the year at the mine, located in the remote east Kimberley region, then in Singapore and Antwerp. Bids close on 2 December 2020.

Pic show the six Argyle Heroes 2020...

Research agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P's) Global Market Intelligence says major gold miners globally have seen their economically mineable gold reserves decline over the last decade, owing to a lack of new discoveries and a shift away from growth strategies to margin preservation. With top producers facing declining production profiles, shrinking reserves and a return to rising production costs, the agency is expecting many to expand organic exploration in the near term ,while leveraging targeted acquisitions to supplement their depleted pipelines.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday issued corrected stress test results after identifying an error in projected trading losses from its June 2020 initial release.