Archive

  • In a letter to its clients, Petra Diamonds has announced it is postponing its August viewing and sale of South African production in Johannesburg until further notice, to avoid unnecessary supply of rough to the market, which has been suffering from weak demand for several months now.

  • In a statement issued by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the umbrella organization calls for the inclusion of one or more G7 verification points for rough diamonds, outside of the G7 and EU. Antwerp's representative body says it is fully aligned with the G7 and EU's ban on Russian diamonds through a solid but workable verification system, including the use of traceability solutions, which at the same time ensures the trade of non-sanctioned goods is not affected.

  • Antwerp mourns the loss of industry veteran Willy Rotti, former President of the Diamantclub of Antwerp and honorary President of the Belgian Federation of Diamond Bourses who passed away on May 22. The Rotti family, one of the founding families of the Diamantclub of Antwerp, is a well-known name in the industry and has been active in the diamond industry for over 120 years.

  • [A DIAMOND LOUPE EXCLUSIVE STORY] - It was only just last September that Canadian mining company Arctic Canadian (AC) announced the recovery of a yellow diamond weighing an impressive 71.26 carats. The rough octahedron gem is currently the largest known fancy vivid yellow diamond ever discovered in Canada.

  • 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.

  • The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the industry organization representing Antwerp’s 1600 diamond companies and service providers, has appointed David Gotlib as its new President, replacing outgoing President Chaim Pluczenik. The Board also appointed Sahag Arslanian and Amish Jain as Vice Presidents.

  • Australia-based Newfield Resources, concluded its maiden sale of 5333ct rough produced in the miner’s Sierra Leone Tongo mine, via Antwerp tender specialist Bonas Group successfully, with total revenues amounting to US$1.44m. Strong demand pushed prices for the 15 trial sale lots to an average of US$269/ct, well over Newfields estimation of US$222/ct. Newfield will conduct more sales this year as the company starts production at two of the five identified kimberlites on the Tongo mining leases.

  • First Element reports extremely strong results from their Antwerp sale of Jagersfontein Developments and Rooipoort Developments production which closed on Monday (23rd May) at the Antwerp Tender Facility. 100% of the parcels on offer were sold with increases in prices seen across all categories, especially in the smaller goods. There were 112 companies who placed bids with 62 of them being successful. “It appears that the diamond market has recovered exceptionally well after the uncertainty seen in recent weeks.

  • Australian diamond exploration and development company Newfield announced they signed an exclusive diamond sales and marketing agreement with the Bonas Group. Newfield’s flagship asset is the Tongo Mine Development in eastern Sierra Leone. 

    Through this partnership, Newfield will be able to fully authenticate the source of the Tongo diamonds sold, via the Sarine Technologies traceability program used by Bonas. Buyers and retailers of those goods will therefore have full traceability of the diamonds’ origin.

  • Namdia, the state-owned diamond authorized to sell 15% of rough production from the Namibian government and De Beers joint venture Namdeb, has released its updated client list, including nine Antwerp-based diamond companies last Friday. Namdia now has 36 core clients for the next three-year cycle, up from 16 in the previous years (2019-2021). Earlier this year, in February, Namibian President Hage Geingob visited the Antwerp diamond community, to discuss business opportunities.

  • Antwerp Jeweler Beldiamond teamed up with digital transparency company Everledger to offer diamonds backed by blockchain. Thanks to this technology, the journey of a diamond can be entirely traced and recorded, creating its own unique digital identity. According to Beldiamond, blockchain technology paves the way for diamond sourcing to become even more transparent and responsible.

  • It’s the number one question on the minds of every diamond trader in the last 3 months. Is today’s strong market the result of pent-up demand, and a spectacular jewelry rush in December where the end of the pandemic atmosphere and extra pocket money drove customers to indulge in diamond jewelry? Or is it a full-blown recovery where the market finds a new balance between supply and demand? At least for Antwerp, the results of 2021 and the first results of 2022 hint to where the diamond market is going. We asked a few questions to our new Head of Media Relations: Tom Neys.

  • Mountain Province announced the results of their first diamond sale of the year in Antwerp. The company sold 181,851 carats of diamonds recovered from the Gahcho Kué mine for total proceeds of US$25 million. This results in an average value of US$137 per carat for the Antwerp tender, which is 84% higher than the average price per carat of all diamonds sold in 2020.

  • Closing its latest sale in Antwerp yesterday, Grib Diamonds reported selling 560,000 carats of complete mine production from the Grib Diamond Mine, for a total of US$73m.  The average price was US$130/ct, up a whopping 35% compared to the recent sales results of the same production by Stargems in Dubai, which achieved US$94/ct just two weeks ago.

    Grib stated to be pleased with the support of over 300 customers present in the auction, with a record demand of 174 companies placing competitive bids. There were 47 winners and a total of 4,870 bids added.

  • GRIB Diamonds, the Antwerp-based rough diamond selling arm of AGD Diamonds, has kicked off 2022 with its first Spot viewing for Regular Goods in Antwerp today, with the spot auction slated for January 24th. Interested parties can apply via GRIB's website to schedule an appointment. 

  • The Democratic Republic of Congo’s new minister of mines, Mrs Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi and a high-level delegation of representatives of various DRC government agencies supervised by the Mining Ministry was welcomed in Antwerp yesterday by the AWDC and met with several stakeholders of Antwerp’s diamond community. The DRC’s first female mining Minister, a well-known civil rights activist, was appointed to lead the key position in April of this year.

  • According to figures released by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the rough diamond business in Antwerp is outperforming pre-pandemic levels of 2019 and it seems the polished business is on its way to recovery.

    From January to September 2021, 69.5 million carat rough diamonds worth 7.8 billion USD were imported in Antwerp, a 31% rise in value compared to 2019 pre-pandemic figures. On the export side, AWDC’s figures show a 21% rise compared to 2019 with 79.1 million carat imported rough diamonds worth 8.2 billion USD.

  • Grib Diamonds, the Antwerp-based marketing arm of Russian miner AGD Diamonds, on June 16 sold over $20 million of rough diamonds from its fully-owned Grib Diamond Mine in Russia. Despite the troubled times the rough diamond market is going through, Grib was able to sell more than 90% of the goods on offer and approximately 350k carats.

  • The cautious optimism that had returned to the Antwerp diamond industry following a robust month of trade in January - and into February for the rough trade - turned out to be short-lived, as the explosive spread of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus first closed the Eastern markets and gradually made its impact felt across the global diamond industry.

  • Concern about the impact of the coronavirus on the diamond and jewelry trade is growing, not only in China, but also in the markets that supply China, like Hong Kong and India. Events have been concelled, retail sales have plummeted and the outbreak of the virus in China has already had a ripple effect on diamond supply chains as the death toll passes 1,000. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.