Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online News) - In general, for rounds March was all about reversing the trends of February, when the market dared a little, only to be whistled back in March.

Parallel to trends in the previous month, prices of round diamonds under a carat remained rather stable, with a few goods, especially in the higher colors and clarities, losing a few percent. Prices of goods between 80 points and a carat 'seesawed' a bit, by either gaining or losing a few percent in the higher and commercial colors and clarities. We observed some categories recovering from slight losses incurrent in February.

Prices of carats up to a 1.25 carat in high colors and mid-range clarities recovered from their slight losses in February, while stones from 1.25 to 1.5 ct. didn't change, with very little movement in prices of good up to two carats.,

In goods above two carats, we saw goods in commercial colors drop back to prices paid in January. The same trend was also visible in the 3-4-carat categories, where the downward price curve extended from D- L, but seldom ventured beyond the VS2 clarity range. Again, this was almost a complete reversal of the gains these categories made in February. Clearly, the rounds market, across the board, is a market in waiting.

Prices of small fancies, under half a carat in both top and commercial colors made a come-back from last month's downturn, and in some categories continued to rise gradually. The same trend was observed, with a few exceptions for fancies up to carat, with price gains broadening into the commercial colors and lower clarities.

Following the general market...

Feriel Zerouki, Senior Vice President of International Relations and Ethical Initiatives, De Beers Groupis the recipient of  the 2019 Initiatives in Art and Culture Award for Leadership in Responsible Practice in Jewelry, Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) announced. With the award, Zerouki is recognized “for elevating the conversation internationally on sustainability through the De Beers Best Practice Principles and providing working solutions to help track responsible-sourced diamonds in the Sierra Leone.”

The Initiatives in Art and Culture Award for Leadership in Responsible Practice in Jewelry is presented annually to a recipient that is a member of the jewelry industry, or part of a jewelry-focused organization that has made a transformational contribution to ethical sourcing and responsible practices in the worldwide gem and jewelry trade. Feriel Zerouki will be honored at "Gold: Legacy, Leadership, Luminescence," a conference which will be held at Bohemian National Hall in New York City, on April 4 and 5, 2019.

Feriel joined De Beers Group as a Supply Chain Analyst in 2005, at the Diamond Trading Company where she gained expertise in pricing rough diamonds and forecasting mine production. She was then appointed Best Practice Principles Manager for De Beers Group in 2009, where she was tasked with embedding the Group’s sustainability program. More recently she was appointed Senior Vice President, International Relations and Ethical Initiatives for De Beers Group.

In 2018, De Beers Group partnered with the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) to launch GemFair, a pilot program that aims to create a secure and transparent route to market for ethically-source artisanal and small-scale mined (ASM) diamonds. The initiative combines on the ground training and engagement with miners on ethical standards with a digital...

Petra, one of the junior diamond miners that is suffering from stock value undervaluation, pulled a 425.10-carat Type II white rough diamond from its famous Cullinan diamond mine

Petra Diamonds announced that it has recovered a 425.10 carat D colour Type II gem quality diamond earlier on March 29 from its famous Cullinan Diamond Mine.

In its announcement, Petra said that “this recovery further demonstrates the prevalence of these types of stones in the Cullinan orebody as well as the ability of the mine’s plant to recover the full spectrum of diamonds.”

Since acquiring the mine from de Beers, the mine’s yield of large, gem quality has been prolific. Earlier this month, Petra mined 6.12-carat blue diamond, as well as a top color rough stone of more than 100 carats.

The new find is expected to be sold during the fourth quarter of the year. Petra will report its production and sales results for the first quarter of the year in mid-April. Following the find, Petra's stock value increased with eight percent.  Like many other junior diamond miners, during past months Petra's stock value dropped significantly....

Last year Turkey’s lira crisis quickly morphed into a Euro-zone crisis as Italian bond yields blew higher and the euro quickly reversed off a major Q1 high near $1.25.

It nearly sparked a global emerging market meltdown and subsequent melt-up in the dollar.

This week President Erdogan of Turkey banned international short-selling of the Turkish lira in response to the Federal Reserve’s complete reversal of monetary policy from its last rate hike in December.

The markets responded to the Fed with a swift and deepening of the U.S. yield curve inversion. Dollar illiquidity is unfolding right in front of our eyes.

Turkish credit spreads, CDS rates and Turkey’s foreign exchange reserves all put under massive pressure. Unprecedented moves in were seen as the need for dollars has seized up the short end of the U.S. paper market.

Martin Armstrong talked about this yesterday:^[1]

The government [Turkey] simply trapped investors and refuses to allow transactions out of the Turkish lira. Turkey’s stand-off with investors has unnerved traders globally, pushing the world ever closer to a major FINANCIAL PANIC come this May 2019.
There is a major liquidity crisis brewing that could pop in May 2019.

Martin’s timing models all point to May as a major turning point. And the most obvious thing occurring in May is the European Parliamentary elections which should see Euroskeptics take between 30% and 35% of seats, depending on whether Britain stands for EU elections or not.

That depends on Parliament and the EU agreeing to a longer extension of Brexit in the next two weeks.

Parliament has created “Schroedinger’s Brexit,”^[2] neither alive nor dead but definitely bottled up in a box no one...