Rio Tinto is looking for buyers for three diamond mines. A 100% stake in the Argyle Mine in Australia that is famous for its pink diamonds, a 60% interest in the Diavik Mine in the Norwest Territories of Canada that is famous for it’s extremely high ore grade, and the smaller Murowa Diamond Mine in Zimbabwe.
Most people don’t realize that some amazing emeralds have been found in North Carolina. The North Carolina Museum of Natural History just received a gift of four emeralds found in Alexander County in 2011 that are worth millions of dollars.
Investing in diamonds and the stocks of diamond companies requires a lot of specialized knowledge. A diamond exchange-traded fund is proposed that will attempt to track the public market for diamonds.
Low diamond prices and a strong Australian dollar have caused problems for the Australian diamond and gemstonemining industry for the past five years (see graph below). Could 2012 be a year of change?
Increasing popularity, increasing disposable income and an increasing interest in gemstone investments are working together to make China a major importer of gem-quality diamonds.
De Beers Canada has an agreement with the Province of Ontario that ten percent of the gem quality diamonds produced from the Victor Mine will be cut in Ontario. The problem is finding cutters who have skills that match the quality of the stones.
Throughout the 20th century most people would never have thought about Canada being an important producer of diamonds. But in 1991 two geologists found evidence of kimberlite pipes about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Soon Canada became one of the world’s leading diamond producers.
“A new study suggests that some stars in the Milky Way could harbor “carbon super-Earths” – giant terrestrial planets that contain up to 50 percent diamond.” Quoted from the Ohio State University press release.
This video shows how Raffi Stepanian finds gold and diamonds in the cracks of Manhattan sidewalks. I don’t know if he really making 300 bucks per day but his techniques are interesting!
It has been said that for all of the money in circulation today, four times that amount has been lost, hidden or buried.
“Buying Gem Rough” is an interesting article by Lisa Elser. She provides some tips on evaluating the rough, the people you are buying from, and how you will utilize what you buy.
Ten years ago very few diamonds were being sold in China but today the country is the second largest consumer of gem diamonds with an annual consumption of about $8 billion.
Part of an exploration map - Wyoming Geological Survey
The United States is the world’s leading consumer of diamonds, spending billions of dollars per year on the gem. Although domestic production is currently just a few hundred carats, there is a potential for production in several states.
A 110-carat vivid yellow, pear-shaped diamond that was mined in South Africa will be auctioned next week in Geneva. It is expected to bring up to $15 million. YouTube Video.
Anglo American has negotiated a deal that will give them 85% of the outstanding stock of De Beers, a company that has dominated the diamond industry for about 100 years.
In the third quarter of 2011, the Diavik DiamondMine in Canada’s Northwest Territories produced 1.9 million carats of rough diamond from 600,000 tons of ore. For the calendar year they expect to produce 6.9 million carats from 2 million tons of ore.
“Scientists at Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory are part of a team that has discovered a new form of carbon, which is capable of withstanding extreme pressure stresses that were previously observed only in diamond.” Quoted from the Carnegie Institution for Science news release.
Diamond is the world’s most popular gemstones and it’s qualities as the hardest natural substance make it an excellent abrasive. However, diamond is used for many other things which include: heat sink, speaker dome, laser windows and microbearings.
Stephen Blumberg, a jeweler in Quincy, Massachusetts, explains how the high price of gold has changed the traffic in his jewelry store and the types of things that people are buying.
DeBeers has long been the world’s leading company for mining, manufacturing and marketing gem and industrial diamond products. Now the company is offering venture capital to proposals that focus on creating new technological markets for their synthetic diamond products.
“Diamond may be the ideal substance for MEMS devices,” says NIST’s Craig McGray. “It can withstand extreme conditions, plus it’s able to vibrate at the very high frequencies that new consumer electronics demand. But it’s very hard, of course, and there hasn’t been a way to engineer it very precisely at small scales. We think our method can accomplish that.” Quoted from the NIST press release.
Gemstones have been faceted for hundreds of years and up until about 20 years ago the facets have been perfectly flat surfaces. New equipment allows facets to be cut with a concave shape that gathers light from a wider range of angles and broadly diverges it within the stone. The result is a bright and interesting gem. The down side is that the weight of the stone is reduced.
Scott Sucher has carefully researched, calculated and faceted replicas for over 30 of the world’s most famous diamonds. Images, histories and descriptions of these incredible stones can be seen at his Museum Diamonds website.
The American Chemical Society has an article about the Deep Carbon Observatory, a research effort to study Earth’s deep carbon cycle, and how DCO research can apply to energy, manufacturing, biology and even astronomy.
Named “Vivid Yellow” because of its extremely saturated color, the 32.77 carat diamond is expected to yield $6 to $8 million at auction. Its about the size and shape of a guitar pick.
USGS has published: “Alluvial Diamond Resource Potential and Production Capacity Assessment of the Central African Republic“. “Estimates are that approximately 39,000,000 carats of alluvial diamonds remain in the eastern and western zones of the CAR combined. This amount is roughly twice the total amount of diamonds reportedly exported from the Central African Republic since 1931.” Quoted from the USGS publication release.
USGS Special Investigations Report 2010–5044: “Alluvial Diamond Resource Potential and Production Capacity Assessment of Mali” has been published. The objective of this study was (1) to assess the naturally occurring endowment of diamonds in Mali (potential resources) based on geological evidence, previous studies, and recent field data and (2) to assess the diamond-production capacity and measure the intensity of mining activity.
“Researchers analyzed data from the literature of over 4,000 of these mineral inclusions to find that continents started the cycle of breaking apart, drifting, and colliding about 3 billion years ago.” Quoted from the Carnegie Institution for Science press release.
Diamond discoveries in Canada have vaulted the country from obscurity to a leadership position in the diamond mining industry. Now a deposit has been discovered in central Saskatchewan that feasibility studies project will yield 12.3 carats per ton with a value of US$242 per carat.
The Kimberly Process approved the export of diamonds produced in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields over strong objections raised by representatives from the United States, Canada and European Union.
The demand for synthetic industrial diamond is expected to grow at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per year in China and India as growth in their manufacturing and construction industries occurs.
Gem Diamonds began construction of its Gope Diamond Mine in Botswana, Africa. The underground mine is expected to produce and process about 500,000 metric tonnes of ore per year.
Many of the natural resource development projects above the Arctic Circle have been supported by ice roads bringing supplies from the south. A warming climate is expected to shift that traffic as northern seaways open.
After moving to underground production methods the Diavik Mine, located in the Northwest Territories of Canada, is expected to have a production increase to 7 million carats per year.
BHP Billiton will begin stripping land in October to extend the life of the Ekati diamondmine that began operations in Canada’s Northwest Territories in 1998.
Stock prices took a major fall between 2005 and present, but the prices paid at auction for colored gemstones have set records the entire time. According to an article on the AdvisorOne website, high-end gemstone and diamond purchases isn’t an investment market for the average person.
Scientists have made an aerogel out of diamonds. It is 1/8 the density of cork and 40 times the density of air. It has the potential of being used in supercomputers, electronics devices, sensors and human implants.
For the second consecutive year, ALROSA, a Russian diamond producing company, has produced more diamonds than De Beers, the long-time diamond production leader.
The chairman of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme says that diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange field can enter international trade, however, several countries, including the United States, disagree.
As De Beers prepared to sell a portion of its famous Namaqualand Diamond Mine on the Atlantic coast of South Africa, 40 families stepped forward to claim that they own part of the mine.
In this CNN interview, Frederic de Narp, CEO of Harry Winston explains that the demand for high quality diamonds is rising rapidly in China and his company has aggressive plans for pursing that market.
Foreign diamondmining companies in the alluvial deposits of Zimbabwe have been ordered to cede majority ownership in an attempt to stop diamond smuggling?
The news has several reports about diamond mining companies making large investments to quickly get their production up. This is in response to strong retail diamond sales – especially in China and India where double digit growth in retail diamond sales occurred in 2010 (25% and 31%). This report on Petra Diamonds that appeared in MiningWeekly.com is typical of what can be found in the recent news.
An article on the East African Business Week website explores how a lack of severance taxes has positive and negative impacts on the development of mineral properties in Tanzania.
When the recession started many diamond miners cut back on their development activities and retailers left their inventories sell down. Then in 2010, retailers and the public started buying, demand in India and China picked up, and that caused rough diamonds to be in short supply.
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