Diamond News Archives

This year will likely go down in history as the one when lab-grown diamonds, made for decades as an inexpensive alternative to mined stones for industrial purposes, finally cracked the consumer market, largely thanks to millennials' evolving shopping tastes.

The entry of new actors in the synthetic sector, particularly giant producer De Beers and its Lightbox brand, has created even greater awareness for lab diamonds and is spurring more consumer activity.

Gem-quality lab-created diamond production for use in jewellery now exceeds 1.5-million carats of polished annually, according to independent diamond industry analyst Paul Zimnisky. And it’s expected to grow even further in 2019.

So where does the industry go from here? In its eighth annual global diamond report, Bain & Company and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, outline three key industry trends that will be influential in shaping the future of the diamond sector:

1. Increasing influence of digital technologies:

Emerging and maturing digital technologies are affecting all parts of the value chain, the report says, enabling diamond producers, midstream players and retailers to increase efficiencies within their operations.

A good example of this trend are the blockchain projects launched this year, aimed at helping consumers confidently identify the origin of their diamonds. The most significant, “Tracr”, even saw the sector two giants — De Beers and Alrosa — joined forces to test a pilot testing the blockchain technology-based platform.

2. Growing presence of lab-grown diamonds:

“Lab-grown diamonds are clearly here to stay,” says Olya Linde, partner at Bain & Company and lead author of the report.

De Beers’ launch of Lightbox, a retailer of lab-grown diamonds, and the U.S. Federal Trade...

Ron Paul is warning this year's corrections could be a precursor to an epic market collapse that may come sooner than investors think.

According to the former Republican presidential candidate, Wall Street is becoming more vulnerable to near-depression conditions within the next 12 months.

"Once this volatility shows that we're not going to resume the bull market, then people are going to rush for the exits," Paul said Thursday on CNBC's "Futures Now^[1]." The relentlessly bearish former congressman added that "It could be worse than 1929."

During that year, the stock market began hemorrhaging, falling almost 90 percent and sending the U.S. economy into a tailspin.

Paul, a well-known Libertarian, has been warning Wall Street a massive market plunge is inevitable for years. He's currently projecting a 50 percent decline from current levels as his base case, citing the ongoing U.S.-China trade war as a growing risk factor.

"I'm not optimistic that all of the sudden, you're going to eliminate the tariff problem. I think that's here to stay," he said. "Tariffs are taxes."

The scenario is exacerbating Paul's chief reason behind his bearish call: 2008 financial crisis easy money policies. He contended the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing has caused the "biggest bubble in the history of mankind^[2]."

"It's so important to understand the original cause of the problem, and that is the Federal Reserve running up debt and letting politicians spend money," he added.

Paul argued that Washington lawmakers do not have an ability to effectively fix the debt problem, and he's been highly critical of the 2017 Trump tax cuts for creating a dire debt situation.

The White House is estimating this year's budget deficit will total $1.09 trillion....

Consultancy firm Americas Market Intelligence or AMI issued this week a lengthy report on the risks of mining in Latin America. One of the chapters focuses on security hazards and reveals that such perils are not necessarily provoked by illegal groups.

According to AMI, sometimes local community members that opposed mining operations can cause security risks by deploying roadblocks and aggressive or invasive tactics at the mine’s perimeter. If the local or federal government does not want to get involved in the issue for political reasons, then the miner is left on its own to deal with the disruption.

As an example, the consultancy firm presents the case of Gran Colombia Gold’s (TSX:GCM) mine in the department of Caldas which was blocked in the summer of 2017 by independent miners, whose protest actions became violent at times. Only after 42 days of rallies was the Canadian miner able to resume operations.

In the Colombian context such as the one where Gran Colombia operates, AMI says it is common to see lawyers and local indigenous representatives engaging the mine in elaborate extortion schemes, usually triggered by environmental damage or the possibility of it. Similar situations take place in Chile.

The document also states that mining unions in Latin America can be very aggressive as well and some of its members can become security risks for companies, particularly if they have ties with organized crime.

The report details the case of unions in Mexico that were traditionally funded by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as PRI. Such labour organizations lost their main source...

(IDEX Online) – Firestone Diamond plc has recovered a 46-carat white, makeable diamond from its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho. <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

The stone was recovered undamaged and will go on sale at the next tender which is scheduled to take place at the end of January 2019, the firm said.

The company added that pricing for smaller, lower value stones (-3 grainers) at the recent sale which was concluded on 7 December stabilized, confirming the trend reported by other producers.

Further details will be included in the Q2 production update....