Diamond News Archives

Africa-focused Gem Diamonds (LON:GEMD) is having an extraordinary year so far as the small miner continues to find precious rocks bigger than 100 carats at its flagship Letšeng mine in Lesotho.

On Wednesday, the England-based company said it had dug up a 152-carat, top white colour type IIa diamond, the sixth major find so far this year.

In contrast, it discovered only seven diamonds bigger than 100 carats for the whole of 2017 and five the year before.

Shares in the miner, which in January scored big by finding the world’s fifth-largest diamond in history, jumped moderately on the news. They were up 1.3% to 86.50 pence by 12:57 PM local time.

More than luck

Since acquiring Letšeng in 2006, Gem Diamonds has found about 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.

The biggest diamond ever found was the 3,106-carat Cullinan, dug near Pretoria, South Africa, in 1905. It was later cut into several stones, including the First Star of Africa and the Second Star of Africa, which are part of Britain's Crown Jewels held in the Tower of London. Lucara’s 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona was the second-biggest in record, while the 995-carat Excelsior and 969-carat Star of Sierra Leone were the third- and fourth-largest.

The post Gem Diamonds on fire, finds sixth giant rock this year appeared first on MINING.com....

“The sale of The World’s Most Expensive Dinner by World of Diamonds Group to V Diamonds has been canceled by a mutual decision of the companies, and World of Diamonds Group remains the sole owner of the ring and the $2 Million Dinner experience. The token sale planned by V Diamonds is canceled, and all the pre-subscriptions to the token sale will be refunded back to the participants,” reads a media statement by the aforementioned firms.

This story began back in 2016 when World of Diamonds Group launched a $2 million dinner that was accompanied with a blue diamond ring named after actress Jane Seymour and Singapore-registered V Diamonds offered to buy it. In November last year, V Diamonds began selling tokens for as little as $2 promising a one-millionth stake in the ring and the chance to win the luxurious experience.

However, with very little explanation and no details on how many tokens were sold, the high-end raffle was canceled by V Diamonds. In the press release, World of Diamonds Group states that the dining promotion will be launched again, with an option to pay in cryptocurrency.

Instead of a raffle, it seems that whoever is interested can now pay World of Diamonds Group directly for the $2 million meal, which would include the rare diamond ring, a four-hour private jet flight (which departs from and lands back in Singapore), $17,000 diamond chopsticks and an 18-course dinner prepared by the Michelin-starred team from Jaan, a three-hour yacht cruise, 10,000 roses, a private fireworks display, first-class tickets to and from Singapore, Rolls-Royce transfers and a three-night stay at the Presidential suite of Swissotel The Stamford.

Half a million dollars from the sale would be donated to charity. “The World’s Most Expensive Dinner will now save thousands of children,” Karan Tilani, director of the World of Diamonds Group, said in the brief. “We have now committed to support 8,000 children annually in Nigeria by providing them with medical aid, food, shelter and education. These are witch-children who are victims of an African superstition which believes that children are witches when there is an unfortunate event in the family – like a death, illness or poor harvest of crops. In those cases, the children are tortured or abandoned by the families,” he explained.

The Russia-based company also expects to use part of the $500,000 to provide proper medical equipment to an existing inoperative hospital. “To honor the buyer of the $2 million dinner, World of Diamonds Group will rename this hospital after him/her,” Tilani said.

The post Diamond-backed raffle for “world’s most expensive dinner” canceled appeared first on MINING.com....

Representatives from the community-based organization Marange Development Trust appeared before Zimbabwe’s Parliament to denounce that people in the Marange diamond fields are experiencing worse living conditions now that the Zimbabwe Consolidated Mining Company is in charge of the area.

According to Chairman Malvern Mudiwa, the different kinds of abuses that villagers have been enduring for decades have intensified. He said that locals are subjected to beatings, are asked to relocate with little notice and with no compensation, and air pollution, environmental degradation, and poverty are rampant.

The community organizer expressed special concern about the environmental effects of mining activities carried out by the state-owned corporation, which was created in 2016 after the consolidation of seven firms that were mining gems in the Marange diamond fields, located in the eastern part of the country. According to Mudiwa, the ZCDC is operating without environmental impact assessments and, on top of that, the company does not contribute anything to the community.

The Marange Development Trust rep emphasized that water pollution has become a big problem, as well as deep gullies that are left open after mining sites have been exhausted. Mudiwa also denounced that graves and sacred places are being desecrated, livestock is dying and, since blasting is taking place 50 metres away from homesteads, dust not only pollutes the air but it is also blocking solar panels.

The activist concluded that diamonds have become a curse instead of a blessing for those living in the Mutare West region.

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