Diamond News Archives

Precious gemstones miner Gemfields is stepping up efforts to increase transparency across the entire supply chain amid fresh allegations of human rights abuses at its Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique, which has cost it a lawsuit filed last week in London’s High Court.

Leigh Day, the London-based law firm representing over 100 locals, said security forces employed by the miner — which describes itself as “a leading supplier of responsibly sourced coloured gemstones” — shot, beat and subjected to humiliating treatment and sexual abuse to its clients.

It also said the claimants, which include family members representing four people who were killed, were unlawfully detained and forced to carry out menial labour.

Together with denying such accusations, Gemfields, which publicly opposes to any form of violence or abuse, is trying hard to get some sparkles back into its name.

The UK miner, the world's top coloured gems producer accounting for roughly a third of the global supply of emeralds and rubies, is adopting a new technology to further drive transparency in the gemstone industry.

“The coloured gemstone industry is ancient, and perhaps as a result, is often viewed as fragmented and opaque,” Jack Cunningham, Head of Sustainability at Gemfields, told MINING.com.

“Many individuals have benefited at the expense of others; with expert knowledge, the buyers and traders in particular were — and still are — in a very strong position to defend their positions in the industry without anyone, up or down the supply chain, being able to challenge them,” Cunningham said.

That’s why Gemfields is incorporating a synthetic nano-technology, which acts as “the DNA” of...

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales fell 1.2% YoY in March.

But that isn’t really the important tidbit from this story. The amazing disappearing affordable house IS the story.

Existing home sales for 250k and under crashed and burned in March.

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But behind the scenes, there is ongoing debate about how far bad loans from banks need to be reduced before European solidarity can be applied to financial institutions in need.

Mrs Merkel, who agreed to the banking union in March, said she wants to see a further reduction of the debts and risks of national banks in the EU states. 

At the time she said Germany had always been willing to give up sovereignty, if things could be better regulated by Europe.

Her country was also willing to help stabilise the Euro and was prepared for joint euro debt, she added.

The reduction of bad loans is progressing slowly in Europe. 

Italy reported the sale of billions of financial investors before its general election in March - but this represents just a fraction of the total of bad loans.

German banks are feeling the pressure, with NordLB working hard to solve its capital problem after the takeover of the ailing Bremer Landesbank.

Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron said the EU should accept a comprehensive "package of reforms" in June in areas such as the euro-monetary union and asylum and foreign policy.

The possibility of an EU-wide finance minister, and a Eurozone budget have also been floated.

She added: ”We agree that the Eurozone is not yet sufficiently crisis-proof.

"We bring in some other aspects, but I believe that the sum of our proposals will lead to a good result at the end.” 

The pair insisted that by June, they wanted to develop a common position....

Shares in Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) climbed almost 8% on Monday after the miner reported a significant revenue increase in its third-quarter driven by record production in the first three months of 2018.

The South African diamond producer, owner of the iconic Cullinan mine, which produced the diamonds for the British crown jewels, said revenue for the quarter ended March 31 climbed 44% to $172 million, from $119 million a year earlier.

The company, known for some major recent findings, attributed part of the revenue growth to the fact it sold 1,373,771 carats of diamonds compared to 1,069,886 sold in the same period a year earlier.

While production jumped 20% to a record quarterly volume of 1,194,947 carats, Petra said illegal mining at its Kimberley Ekapa Mining JV (KEM) dented output during the quarter by restricted access to high grade dumps at the surface retreatment operation.

It also said its full year 2018 revenue continued to be impacted by the inability to sell a blocked diamond parcel from it Williamson mine of about 71,000 carats. The shipment was seized by the Tanzanian government in September last year, as part of the country’s ongoing probe into alleged wrongdoing in the diamond and tanzanite sectors.

Chief executive Johan Dippenaar said the company’s focus would move away from volume targets to value optimization.

'While we are very encouraged by the operational delivery against our long-term expansion plans, risks to performance continue to relate to increased volatility in the ZAR/US$ exchange rate, grade and pricing variability at Cullinan,” Dippenaar said in the statement, adding that the outlook for its Williamson mine as well as the blocked...