Diamond News Archives
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Rising mineral prices and the increasing difficulties to earn a living from agriculture, have led to an explosive growth in global artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the last few years.
The activity is emerging as an significant socio-economic sector in a number of developing nations, to the point it has become a major of revenue for millions of people in about 80 countries worldwide — mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Oceania, Central and South America — with more than 100 million people currently depending on ASM for their livelihoods.
But what are the exact costs of this activity? The folks at Moneypod have put together this infographic that reveals just that.
The post INFOGRAPHIC: The true costs of artisanal mining appeared first on MINING.com....
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(IDEX Online) – Sergey Ivanov, CEO of ALROSA, held talks on diamond-related issues with Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Belgium, and Stephane Fischler, the President of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
The parties discussed issues related to the development of bilateral cooperation in the field of diamond trading, as well as cooperation within the framework of industry international organizations.
"Belgium has been and remains the world's largest diamond trading center and the largest trading partner of ALROSA, today it accounts for about half of the company's rough diamond sales," Ivanov said in a statement. "Belgium has many years of experience and expertise, well-developed infrastructure, favorable business conditions and measures for promoting industry development taken by the country's leaders. All of this makes Antwerp attractive not only for ALROSA, but also for many other participants in the world diamond market. We highly appreciate the existing high level of cooperation with the Belgian side and will strive for further development and strengthening of our cooperation," Ivanov added.
ALROSA has a long history of fruitful cooperation with Belgium, with a trade office, ALROSA BELGIUM, operating in Antwerp. ALROSA has signed long-term agreements for the supply of gem-quality diamonds with 22 Belgian-based companies. In 2013, ALROSA and AWDC, representing the interests of the Belgian diamond business, signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement provides promotion of the diamond trade, interaction on the Kimberley process issues, implementation of educational programs and the exchange of information....
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Canada-listed Fura Gems (TSX-V:FUR), a new gemstone mining and marketing company headed by former COO of Gemfields (LON:GEM) Dev Shetty, is stepping up efforts to kick off operations at some of its key assets and so take advantage of a growing demand for coloured precious rocks.
The company, which began operations less than a year ago, in May 2017, has good reasons to be in a rush. Sales of emeralds, rubies and sapphires are picking up to the point they are outpacing the increase in demand for diamonds. That, in turn, is fuelling prices for coloured stones, with the market expected to grow from the current $2 billion to $10 billion, in the next ten years, according to the Natural Resource Governance Institute.
Fura’s assets are all located in areas known for holding diamonds deposits, including operating mines currently undercapitalized and that need to be modernized.

Graphic courtesy of Gem Rock Auctions.
A good example of those assets, Fura Gems chief executive officer Dev Shetty told MINING.com, is the company’s Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia, which it grabbed from Gemfields in October.
Located in the mountainous department of Boyacá, Coscuez is probably one of the best-known emerald deposits in the world, said Shetty, adding it’s known to have produced over 95% of Colombia’s emerald supply in the 1970s.
Company believes its Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia has only been ‘scratched on the surface’ and that the best is yet to come.
“We firmly believe that mine has only been scratched on the surface, and the best is yet to come,” Shetty said. “We estimate that if we capitalize it from the current state itself, [Coscuez] will have a minimum life of about 25 years or more, and there is a potential to expand the life by doing core drilling.”
The executive noted Fura Gems already has a core management team on ground, with plans to restart mining there in April.
Similarly, in Mozambique, the company acquired four licences in the area known as “the ruby belt” and it believes is in position to start mining those assets “very soon.”
Messy market
Unlike diamonds, which come mainly from known actors such as De Beers, Alrosa and Rio Tinto, and which are subject to clear regulations, 90% of the coloured gemstones supply comes from an unorganized sector.
90% of the global supply of coloured gemstones comes from a highly disorganized and fragmented industry, says CEO Dev Shetty.
“It is a highly disorganized and fragmented industry,” Shetty said, “but there is considerable scope for growth.”
Fura’s plans in this regard are ambitious, as it aims to organize between 15% and 20% of the current trade, mostly done these days on a small-scale, artisanal basis. Shetty acknowledges that trying to whip the sector into shape won’t be easy, but he thinks is possible and necessary.
“Fura’s...
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Shares in Africa-focused Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD) received a much-needed boost on Wednesday after the miner announced it had has raised £500,000 (about $695,060 at current rates) to fund ongoing exploration in South Africa and Botswana.
The company said the sum was collected through the issue of 50-million shares to new and existing investors at a price of 1p a share.
Miner will begin exploration work in the Sunland Minerals joint venture with Russia’s Alrosa.
Proceeds from the placing will fund ongoing diamond exploration in South Africa and Botswana, and will also provide the company with additional working capital, Botswana Diamonds said in the statement.
Its stock skyrocketed on the news, trading in London 9.79% higher to 1.29p at 3:18 PM local time.
The news comes barely a day after the company said it was ready to begin exploration work in the Sunland Minerals joint venture with Russia’s Alrosa, the world’s top diamond producer by output, in Botswana. It noted initial exploration would focus on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Formed in 2013, the joint venture seeks to take advantage of Alrosa’s technological expertise to identify high potential targets from Botswana Diamonds’ extensive database.
In April last year, the partners secured six new prospecting licences in Botswana that are valid for a period of three years until 2020.
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