Diamond News Archives

(IDEX Online) – Eli Avidar, CIBJO Vice President, has resigned his position at the World Jewellery Confederation, announcing that he plans to run for national political office during the parliamentary elections for the Israeli Knesset which will take place on April 9.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

"Five years ago I had the honor and the privilege to be invited to join the CIBJO Board of Directors by the President, Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri (pictured above with Avidar), and given the opportunity to serve as Vice President. In 2007 I left the Israeli Foreign Ministry, where I had served as a career diplomat, to join the diamond industry. Now 12 years later, I feel compelled to go back and serve my people, as an elected member of the Israeli Knesset."

"I greatly value my time in the industry, and in particular the period I served as a CIBJO officer," Avidar continued. "In particular I feel indebted to Gaetano, who taught me a great deal about the meaning of leadership. I am privileged to consider him a dear friend."

"It is with regret that we accept Eli's resignation, but we applaud his reasons for doing so," said Cavalieri. "There is no higher calling than public office, and from our experience Eli has the commitment, knowledge, skills, talent and motivation to be a tremendous parliamentarian. Our loss will be his country's gain. We wish him the very best of luck."

In addition to his position at CIBJO, until 2018 Avidar served as Executive Director of the Israel Diamond Exchange and Managing Director of the Israel Diamond Institute.  ...

Last year was a momentous one for Africa-focused Gem Diamonds (LON:GEMD), as it recovered a record number of huge precious stones from its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho, the world’s highest-dollar-per-carat diamond mine.

Only in the last three months of the year, the company recovered three of the 15 diamonds over 100 carats it found in 2018 — a whole new record for the London-based miner.

The most important one, the 910-carat “Lesotho Legend”, was unearthed early in the year and the company fetched $40 million for the diamond, one of the largest ever discovered.

Carat recovery, however, dropped in the fourth quarter by 17% to 29,523 ct, which was not enough to ruin the company’s positive year, in which carat recovery actually increased by 11% when compared to 2017 to 126,875 ct.

The average price of diamonds found in the period was just $1,259 per carat, almost half the value for the full year, the company said. The highest price obtained was $64,067 per ct for a 4.06-carat pink diamond – also the top sum achieved during 2018.

Investors reacted negatively to the results. Gem shares fell 2.8% to 105.50 pence in London trading after their release.

Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, Gem Diamonds has found now five of the 20 largest white gem quality diamonds ever recovered, which makes the mine the world’s highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond operation.

At an average elevation of 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Letšeng is also one of the world’s highest diamond mines....

(IDEX Online) – HRD Antwerp has graded what it says is the world’s first ring that is entirely made from a lab-grown diamond made by Dutch Diamond Technologies (DD). <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

‘Project D’, DD’s name for the ring, took a year to manufacture and was created in honor of the company’s 10th anniversary, HRD said.

"The ring was made from a large piece of a 155-carat rough CVD lab-grown diamond which was polished using laser cutting and traditional techniques into a ring which has 133 facets, compared to 57 for a standard brilliant cut," HRD said. "The ring has a total weight of 3,865 carats. It wasn’t until 2017 that it became technically possible to grow large enough monocrystalline lab-grown diamond plates.

"This is not the first ring to be created from a single diamond. In 2011, Shawish, a Swiss jeweler, unveiled the world’s first wearable ring made from a single crystal of natural diamond. Additionally, another lab-grown ‘all diamond’ ring, called (RED), was conceived by the Diamond Foundry, but as far as we are aware, the production phase has not yet started."

Ton Janssen, CEO of Dutch Diamond Technologies, said: “For our 10th anniversary we wanted to create something stunning that would highlight our innovative and high-tech techniques. I think we’ve more than succeeded with the one-off ‘Project D’ ring. It’s a true “European” ring: grown in Germany, cut in the Netherlands and graded by HRD Antwerp in Belgium. HRD Antwerp has a well-earned reputation for delivering a perfect grading system thanks to their sophisticated equipment and dedicated team.”

The quality and carat weight of...

RJK Explorations (TSXV: RJX.A) announced this week that it has entered into a property option agreement with Anthony “Tony” Bishop for the Bishop Nipissing diamond properties in Ontario.

In a press release, RJK explained that the exploration properties total 2,090 hectares encompassing at least 18 potential kimberlite pipes located approximately 10 kilometres south of the town Cobalt, in the eastern side of the Canadian province. The area is a kimberlite field within the Lake Temiskaming Structural Zone

According to the Kirkland Lake-based company, prospector Tony Bishop has spent over four years looking for the source of the Nipissing Yellow Diamond that was found sometime during the development of the silver mines at Cobalt between 1903 and 1905.

Based on the information he collected, including a NI-43-101 technical report he prepared, RJK management made the decision to option the property. The miner said its team will initially drill the most likely potential kimberlite pipes that Bishop believes the Nipissing Yellow Diamond may have come from.

To move forward with the agreement, RJK has to pay $50,000 on signing and issue 1,000,000 shares upon regulatory approval. It also has to spread, over a 4-year period, further cash payments totalling $50,000, as well as issue 1,500,000 shares. The miner also has to invest $1 million in exploration to be able to earn 100% of the properties.

The post RJK to look for the source of the Nipissing Yellow Diamond in Ontario appeared first on MINING.com....