Diamond News Archives

Gold bounced back last night, trading higher in a range of $1294 - $1304.50.

It tripped some buy stops over $1297 (yesterday afternoon’s high), and $1300, but was capped by resistance at $1303-05 (former breakout from 6/15/18 top and prior 5 bottom support - 1/29, 2/7, 2/11, 2/13, and 2/14 lows).

The move was fueled by a pullback in the US dollar (DX from 96.79 – 96.59), which was pressured by some strength in the yuan (6.7293 – 6.7060, stronger Foreign Direct Investment), the euro ($1.1296 - $1.1329, stronger German Wholesale Price Index, Eurozone CPI as expected), and the pound ($1.3221 - $1.3278 – extremely choppy, markets digesting if lessening probability of no-deal Brexit outweighs uncertainty of the duration of Article 50 as May will now ask EU for delay).

Considerably firmer global stocks were a headwind for gold, with the NIKKEI up 0.8% (BOJ dovish – downgraded assessment of exports, factory output and global economy), the SCI rose 1%, European markets were up from 0.3% to 0.6%, and S&P futures were +0.4%.

Stocks were lifted by higher oil prices (WTI to $58.93 – fresh 4-month high) along with a report from the Chinese state media last night that the China’s Vice Premier Liu He spoke with Mnuchin and Lighthizer, and that US and Beijing were making “concrete progress” on the text of the trade agreement.

S&P futures firmed further ahead of the NY open (+14 to 2826), while the US 10-year bond yield moved up to 2.634%. The DX climbed to 96.76, and knocked gold back to $1301.

Misses on the US Empire State Manufacturing Index at 8:30 AM (3.7 vs. exp. 10) and Industrial Production (0.1% vs. exp. 0.4%) and Capacity Utilization (78.2% vs. exp. 78.5%) at 9:15 AM along...

GABORONE – Botswana's Debswana Diamond Mining, a joint venture between De Beers and the southern Africa country's government, aims to keep production at around 24 million carats this year, its managing director said on Friday.

Debswana lifted diamond output by 6 percent to a four-year high of 24.1 million carats in 2018, buoyed by strong demand from the United States, China and India.

"I see the year staying as we budgeted at 24 million carats. There is no reason for us to change production forecasts at this moment," said Debswana managing director Albert Milton.

"But if the markets were to change we will adjust accordingly," he added.

The company is the largest contributor to Botswana's government revenues.

Botswana, Africa's largest diamond producer and among the continent's wealthiest nations, is trying to reduce its reliance on mineral revenues, which the government sees dropping 4 percent to 13.6 billion pula ($1.26 billion) this year.

($1 = 10.7759 pulas)

(Reporting by Brian Benza; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)

The post Botswana's Debswana targets diamond output of 24 million carats in 2019 appeared first on MINING.com....

MOSCOW – Russian state-controlled diamond producer Alrosa said on Friday its 2018 net profit rose 15% to 90.4 billion roubles ($1.4 billion), as a fall in sales volume was offset by stronger global prices.

Though sales volume fell by 8% year-on-year, stronger pricing, particularly in the first half of 2018, meant sales by value increased by 6 percent to $4.4 billion, Alrosa said.

This helped to lift revenue 9% compared with 2017.

Average prices rose 2.9% in 2018, following a 3.4 percent gain the previous year, Alrosa said. The company said it made earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 156 billion roubles in 2018, up 23% from 127 billion roubles the previous year

The company said it made earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 156 billion roubles in 2018, up 23% from 127 billion roubles the previous year.

Shares in the diamond miner were down 1% at 95 roubles each at 0923 GMT.

"The key financial drivers included improved market environment (recovery in prices and stronger demand for diamond jewellery in major markets) and management efforts to boost efficiency," Deputy Chief Executive Alexey Philippovskiy said in a statement.

Global diamond output, however, decreased 5% from the previous year, driven primarily by a fall in Alrosa's own output and that of miner Rio Tinto.

Alrosa's diamond production in 2018 fell 7% year-on-year to 36.7 carats, the miner said, due to the closure of its Mir mine, and completion of open-pit mining at another location.

Production at the Siberian underground mine was halted in August 2017 after it was partially flooded.

Looking ahead, Alrosa said it expected its own production to increase this year to between 37.5 million and 38 million carats, up from...

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References

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