Diamond News Archives
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Gold was a little choppy overnight in a range of $1345.70 - $1354.80.
It firmed during Asian and early European time to its $1345.70 high as the dollar softened (DX to 89.50) - hurt by some euro strength (euro from $1.2368 - $1.24).
Later on, gold was pressured to $1345.70 as the DX bounced back to 89.75, boosted by a weaker pound ($1.4219 - $1.4162 – miss on UK Retail Sales), and a pullback in the euro ($1.2355).
Ahead of the NY open, however, the DX slipped back to 89.55 as the pound rallied back sharply ($1.4246), and the euro recovered ($1.2385).
Rising global bond yields were a headwind for gold, with the JGB (0.34% - 0.43%), German Bund (0.532% - 0.584%), UK Gilts (1.43% - 1.49493%), and US 10-year (2.862% - 2.906%), as were mostly firmer global stocks.
The NIKKEI was up 0.15%, the SCI +0.8%, European shares were unch to +0.2%, but S&P futures were off 0.1%.
Higher oil prices (WTI to $69.56 – fresh 3-year high, Saudi comments that they are looking for crude to rise to $80 or $100 ahead of OPEC meeting tomorrow, growing expectations that the US will re-introduce sanctions against Iran) were supportive of equities.
At 8:30 AM, a slightly worse than expected reading on US Jobless Claims (233k vs. exp. 230k) was largely offset by a better than predicted report on the Philly Fed (23.2 vs. exp. 21).
Ahead of the NYSE open, a disappointing forecast by Taiwan Semiconductor weighed on the tech sector, and some dour comments from the IMF’s Lagarde (sees mountain of debt globally, US debt will haunt it, trade spat may dent business confidence) pressed equities lower through the open (S&P -16 to 2692, Apple, Nvidia, Micron, Advanced...
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Anglo American’s De Beers, the world’s largest rough diamond producer by value, is stepping up efforts to remove so-called “conflict” precious stones from the market by launching a pilot program in Sierra Leone that will help trace the route gems dug up there by small miners.
The trial, which aims at supplying retailers with “ethically-sourced” diamonds from artisanal miners based in the West African country, is De Beers’ latest attempt at cleaning-up distribution chains and better gems worldwide.
As part of the GemFair initiative, the diamond giant will train artisanal and small-scale miners and provide them with tablets as well as a diamond “toolkit” to digitally track their diamonds throughout the supply chain. The technology uses GPS locations and QR-codes to “bag and tag” stones, it said.
De Beers will train artisanal and small-scale miners and provide them with equipment to digitally track their finds.
It will be run with the Diamond Development Initiative, a non-government organization focused on formalizing artisanal mining in Africa.
“The ASM [artisanal] sector represents a critical income source for many poverty-affected communities,” De Beers chief executive, Bruce Cleaver, said in the statement. “However, due to parts of the sector being largely informal and unregulated, it lacks access to established international markets and the ability to derive fair value for participants.”
If successful, the GemFair technology will be integrated on to a new blockchain platform De Beers is developing, Cleaver noted.
Artisanal mining accounts for only 20% of global diamond production, but carries a tainted reputation that’s damaged consumer confidence for almost 20 years.
Between 1991 and 2002, the district of Kono, in Sierra Leone, was at the centre of the "blood diamond" trade that funded the country’s brutal civil...