Archive

  • According to the GJEPC on April 18, a group from De Beers Group and and the Republic of Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy Lefoko Maxwell Moagi visited the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai. The delegation met with members of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council to discuss strengthening diamond trade ties with India. Desipite recent ongoing negotitations between the mining giant and the Botswana government regarding the renewal of their decades-long collaboration, this public display of solidarity was quite noteworthy, potentially indicating some headway on the matter. 

  • De Beers Group yesterday announced the value of rough diamond sales for the second sales cycle of 2023. The mining giant sold $495 million in rough stones. There was a noticeable year-over-year drop in sales when compared with 2022- Cycle 2, where the company sold over $652 million, a 24% fall. Sales were 9% higher than $454 million registered for the preceding first Sight of 2023.

  • De Beers’ Snap Lake diamond mine, Canada's first fully underground mine located in the Northwest Territory, is “entering the final stages of active closure” ahead of a switch to long-term monitoring. This will represent the final stages of shut down since it was decided by the company to cease operations in 2015.

  • Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi last week Sunday warned that his country may sever ties with diamond giant De Beers if talks to renegotiate a sales deal prove unfavorable to his government.

  • Rough diamond production increased by 6% to 8.2 million carats, reflecting strong operational performance across the assets, partially offset by the planned completion of the final cut at Venetia open pit.

  • De Beers have announced the provisional value of their first sales cycle of 2023 for rough diamond sales at $450 million. The company also confirmed actual sales for between the 5 December and the 20 December at $417 million.

    The $450 million compares unfavourably to $660 million in sales revenue for the same period last year.

  • De Beers Group today announced that Stephen Lussier, De Beers Group Executive Vice President for Brands & Consumer Markets, will step down from his executive responsibilities on 1 April 2022 after 37 years with the company. Lussier will continue to contribute to De Beers as a strategic advisor and will continue to serve in his role as Chairman of the Natural Diamond Council.

  • Global diamond group DeBeers has reported an over 20% bump in auction sales towards the closing of the 2022 sales year during its 10th and final yearly sales cycle. The mining and trading firm sold £340million of the gems at its auction in December – up from £279million in December 2021.

    Before the pandemic, diamond prices were falling as the market struggled with oversupply, economic slowdown in China, and a global squeeze on luxury goods spending. The estimated sales at the December auction were down 10 per cent on the November auction, where the firm made £377million.

  • Anglo American PLC said Wednesday that rough-diamond sales by its majority-owned De Beers Group fell in 2022's 10th sales cycle compared with the previous cycle.
    The FTSE 100 mining company said De Beers sold $410 million worth of diamonds in the 10th sales cycle of the year compared with $454 million in the ninth cycle. In the 10th cycle of 2021, it sold $336 million worth of diamonds.

  • De Beers had two more strikeouts with its Exceptional Blue Collection recovered in Petra’s South African Cullinan mine, this last Dec. 7 - perhaps a harbinger of waning demand in the colored diamond auction market.

  • Molefi Letsiki is the chairman of the South African Diamond Dealers Club, executive committee member of The World Federation of Diamond Bourses and one of the founding members of Young Diamantaires. He is also the co-founder and former president of the South African Young Diamond Beneficiators Guild which aims to achieve increased diamond beneficiation of African produced rough diamonds, and ambassador of World Diamond Council systems of warranties.

  • De Beers’ innovation arm, Ignite, is launching a new diamond verification instrument which it promises can automatically screen large volumes of melee at speed, and identify rogue lab grown diamonds. According to De Beers, the device can be “easily operated in-house with no specialist expertise required,” further adding to the novelty of the device.

  • After the recent record setting price breaker auction of the Williamson Pink Star, Sotheby’s now announces that they will soon auction eight blue diamonds sourced from the De Beers Group, with the De Beers Exceptional Blue collection expected to fetch more than $US85 million.

  • Mid September Bruce Cleaver still attended FACETS 2022, the conference on Diamonds in The Age Of The Consumer in Antwerp, organized by the Antwerp World Dmaiamond Center (AWDC). Today he announced that he will be stepping down from his role of CEO of De Beers after 8 years of holding the post, opting for the role of co-chairman of the diamond behemoth.  He joined De Beers group in 2005 and became CEO in 2016.

  • On Tuesday, President Masisi of Botswana, the First Lady,  and a large delegation including the country's Minister of Minerals and Energy Moagi and Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation Kwape visited the Antwerp diamond community.

  • By Mark Hanna

  • Today the step-cut fancy-vivid blue diamond weighing 15.10 carats sold for (450.9 million HKD) US$57.47 million, or over US$3.8 million per carat, at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction.

  • Iconic diamond miner De Beers this week now officially returns to Angola, as the Anglo American diamond mining division signed two mineral investment deals with the State's mining entity Endiama, giving the miner exploration rights for 35 years in the Northeast of the country. Each exploration concession will have a separate joint venture, with the majority of shares held by De Beers, with an option for Endiama to increase it's share.

  • Mining company De Beers and the government of Namibia officially unveiled a new diamond recovery vessel: ‘Benguela Gem’. The vessel will commence operations from next week.

  • De Beers, part of Anglo American, says industry recovery from the COVID impact is reflected on the company’s 2021 results. Total revenue of the company increased significantly with 66% to $5.6 billion in 2021, with rough diamond sales rising to $4.9 billion compared to $2.8 billion in 2020. Rough diamond sales were driven by positive sentiment and strong demand for diamond jewelry in key consumer markets like the US and Mainland China. Both diamond jewelry markets posted positive growth, not only compared to 2020 but also to the pre-pandemic year 2019.

  • Auction house Sotheby’s announced they will auction ‘The De Beers Cullinan Blue’ - one of the most valuable blue diamonds ever - in April.

  • De Beers announced their first sight of the year raised $660 million, a strong increase compared to its revenue at the last December sight, which raised $336 million.

    According to Bruce Cleaver, CEO De Beers, buyers are restocking: “As anticipated, there was strong growth in consumer demand for diamond jewelry over the end of year holiday season. As a result, we saw the continuation of robust rough diamond demand in the first sales Cycle of the year as buyers focus on restocking depleted inventories.”

    Cycle 2 takes place from 14 – 16 February 2022.

  • De Beers Group announced that Stephen Lussier, executive vice president for brands and consumer markets, will step down from his executive responsibilities on April 1. After a distinguished 37 year career with the company, he will continue to contribute to De Beers as a strategic advisor. He will remain in his role as a Chairman of the Natural Diamond Council.

  • "And let it be said, the lab-grown companies aren’t exactly charities – they’re like any other technology company out there to make money."