Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) - At least FORTY diamond miners are feared dead after a mine collapsed in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the country's minister of the interior.

The artisanal workers were in underground shafts in Samba, near the city of Tshikapa, in the southwestern region of Kasai.

Initial reports after the mine collapse on Tuesday (7 June) indicate there were six fatalities. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua has since updated the death toll to "at least 40".  

It quotes government official Alain Tshisungu Ntumba as saying on Thursday (9 June): "I confirm that there was a collapse in Samba in the mining square of a (local) chief. At least 40 people were working there when the ground collapsed. We have been able to pull out, so far, only six bodies."

Landslides and mine collapses are a common hazard for artisanal miners, working with negligible protection or safety checks in areas of unstable soil.  But the scale of this disaster is exceptional.

More than 40 individual wells - between 15m and 18m deep - were affected in the collapse, according to Xinhua. The Congolese authorities have suspended mining activities at the site, which is owned by a local chief.

Pic: Twitter/MediaCongo.net...

Greenlight Capital hedge fund manager David Einhorn said on Thursday that the Federal Reserve is pretending it can tame inflation and that the price of gold is likely to go higher amid the current environment of rising prices. Einhorn has long been betting that gold is a critically important asset in portfolios. Einhorn's fund is up 20.9% this year, thanks to investments in gold...

(IDEX Online) - A new record for the world's largest polished lab grown diamond has been set by Indian company Ethereal Green Diamond LLP, with a 30.18-carat stone.

It snatches the title from Greenlab, another Indian company, which announced just over two weeks ago that it had produced a marquise step cut 27.27-carat diamond.

Both stones were certified by IGI. The 30.18-carat emerald-cut gem, called Pride of India, was graded as H color, VS2 clarity.

 

It was grown in four weeks by the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process, and is currently on display at the JCK show (booth 8135).

The record for a polished lab grown was also broken in February, with a 16.41-carat princess-cut diamond (G/VVS2) produced by Shanghai Zhengshi Technology, in China.

Before that it was broken in August 2021 by a14.60-ct F/VVS2 grown by Ethereal Green Diamond, in Mumbai, India.

The record before that was held by a 12.75-ct F/VVS2, also grown by Shanghai Zhengshi.

Pic shows Pride of India, the world's biggest polished lab grown diamond....

But we’ve had it so good for so long. And it was so easy, and it made everyone look like a genius.