Diamond News Archives

Diamcor, a Canadian junior diamond miner, said it had sold 1,220 carats of rough diamonds from the Krone-Endora at Venetia project in South Africa at its second tender held in the first quarter of the year. The sale netted the junior miner $376,000, with an average price of $308 per carat sold. This represented a significant improvement over the average price - $176 per carat - on all rough diamonds tendered and sold to date. The recent tender included the sale of a 44-carat gem quality rough diamond.

“We continue to be pleased with the results of our tenders, and this recent tender clearly demonstrates the positive impact that larger diamonds in the special category  can have on our revenues,” Diamcor CEO Dean Taylor stated.

Diamcor has a long-term strategic alliance and first right of refusal agreement with Tiffany & Co. Canada, a subsidiary of New York-based Tiffany & Co. to purchase up to100 percent of the production of Krone-Endora at Venetia project.

At the same time, Diamcor’s share price plummeted to a 52-week low this week.
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Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said a rule requiring local investors to control platinum mines will be scrapped and foreigners will be allowed to own 100% in a bid to revive investment.

“We are removing that indigenization rule, which is discouraging foreign direct investment,” Ncube said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Washington. “We say Zimbabwe is open for business; you can only be open if you allow ownership of 100%” —  Finance Minister 

The new rules could be extended to diamond mining, Mines Minister Winston Chitando said in a separate interview on Wednesday. The change to policies introduced by former President Robert Mugabe will increase the appeal of Zimbabwe to the world’s top platinum producers, including Anglo American Platinum Ltd., and could generate interest from Russian diamond miner Alrosa PJSC.

Abandoning the requirement to transfer a 51% stake to locals is part of wider efforts to stimulate the southern African nation’s economy. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has sought to water down some of the contentious rules of his predecessor as mining investment dried up.

Zimbabwe holds the world’s second-largest known reserves of platinum-group metals after South Africa, plus substantial deposits of gold, diamonds, lithium, iron ore, coal, chrome and nickel. The changes to the ownership rules would need to be ratified by parliament.

Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., one of the biggest mining investors in Zimbabwe, is waiting for formal announcements regarding the changes, said spokesman Johan Theron.

“We remain encouraged by ongoing efforts by the government to open the economy to investment and growth,” Theron said in an emailed response to questions.

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Gold remained choppy last night, trading either side of unchanged in a range of $1285 - $1291.

The yellow metal climbed to its $1291 high during late Asian time, as the US dollar was pulling back to 96.85 after a previous advance to 96.98.

During European time, gold dipped to its $1285 low as the DX recovered to 96.96, boosted by weakness in the pound ($1.3175 - $1.3129, Brexit talks remain stuck after UK’s Cox and Barclay met with the EU’s Barnier).

A decline in the US 10-year bond yield (2.701% - 1-week low) was gold supportive, while global equities were mixed with the NIKKEI down 0.6%, the SCI up 1.6%, European shares ranged from -0.2% to +0.2%, and S&P futures were off 0.1%.

A decline in oil (WTI from $56.50 - $55.80) from a much larger than expected build in US oil inventories reported by the API last night and the OECD cutting its global growth to 3.3% from 3.5% forecast were headwinds for stocks.

Gold’s choppy trade continued through the NY open off of two early US economic reports.

At 8:15 AM, the headline US ADP Employment Change Report was worse than expected (183k vs. exp. 190k) and algorithmic trading sent the DX down to 96.82, took gold up to $1288.50.

However, after digesting a large (300k vs. 213k) upward revision to last month’s report, S&P futures turned positive (2792), the DX shot to 97, and knocked gold under the overnight low to reach $1284.

Shortly thereafter at 8:30 AM, the US December Trade Balance Report was worse than expected (-$59.8B vs. exp. -$57.8B, highest in 10 years), with a large negative revision to the November report. The DX plunged to 96.81, and gold recovered to $1286.50.

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Resource development, a principal economic driver of the Northwest Territories' (NWT) economy, is getting a $5.1 million boost in federal funding.

The Government of Canada is investing in two projects that will support resource development in the Slave Geological Province (SGP), an area where the territory's three operating diamond mines are located.

New mining projects are expected to inject new life in Canada’s far north, and the Yukon Territories and Nunavut are projected to surpass the rest of Canada by 2020. The NWT is set to benefit from the growth the mines in Nunavut and the Yukon will bring.

This new funding will go towards the planning of an all-season access corridor into the SGP as well as aerial geophysical surveys of the region. The surveys will lead to the development of mapping products used by mineral exploration companies to target their activity.

Paul Lefebvre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources made the announcement during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention in Toronto.

"Knowing where mineral deposits exist and being able to access them is the first step in attracting investment and growing the resource development sector. We know that similar projects in NWT in the past have led to significant economic development activity,” said Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the Minister responsible for CanNor.

“These projects are building on that success. The Government of Canada is committed to the creation of more good jobs, more economic growth and long-term sustainable development in the North."

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