HARARE – Zimbabwe’s mining industry has appealed to the government for help, saying output is slumping as the state-owned power company fails to honour electricity-supply contracts.Zesa Holdings has broken its promise to “ring-fence” supplies to miners, Zimbabwe’s Chamber of Mines wrote in a letter last week to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. With some companies lackin...Read More
RAPAPORT... Burglars stole more than $1 billion in jewelry, diamonds andgemstones from the historic Green Vault museum in Germany on Monday morning, according to media reports. The thieves gained access to the Dresden museum by twistingback iron grill bars on a ground-floor window, after a nearby fire at a powerdistributor likely disabled the museum's alarm system, German news outlets said. The G...Read More
RAPAPORT... Hong Kong-based jeweler Tse Sui Luen (TSL) raised concerns about theimpact of the Hong Kong protests on its business, as weak consumer sentimentdented sales. "The weak local consumer sentiment as a result of citywideprotests has made it challenging for retailers to operate," the company saidlast week. "The situation was exacerbated by the significant drop in visitorarrivals, parti...Read More
RAPAPORT... Stargems sold nearly $50 million worth of rough diamonds ata record-breaking tender in Dubai this month. A total of 577,000 carats of high-quality rough from acrossAfrica went on sale at the Dubai Diamond Exchange's Almas Towers, withmore than 500,000 of those originating from the Sacim mine in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo. More than 200 international buyers attended the sale,o...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Larry Spicer, a security expert, has joined the leadership team of Jewelers Mutual. Spicer, who has held leadership positions at Aurora Healthcare, Home Depot, and Kohl's, has assumed the role of vice president of Loss Prevention and Risk Management Services. Most recently Spicer was the director, Public Safety at Aurora Healthcare in Milwaukee where he was responsible fo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Ending weeks of speculation, French luxury group LVMH Mo?? <
(IDEX Online) - It may be too early for retailers to celebrate a strong end to the year, but with total U.S. jewelry and watch sales up for the third month in a row, it's a good sign that 2019 will end much better than it started. Sales of fine jewelry and fine watches increased by 6 percent in the U.S. market in September compared to September 2018, as the graph below illustrates. Follo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Stargems, a DMCC-registered international diamond company, sold just under $50 million worth of goods at its recent tender at the Dubai Diamond Exchange. The sale was one of the largest rough diamond tenders held in the UAE.The goods on offer included over 500,000 carats from the SACIM mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A total of 577,000 carats of rough were viewe...Read More
RAPAPORT... Burglars stole jewelry, diamonds andgemstones valued at more than $1 billion from the historic Green Vault museum in Germany on Monday morning, according to media reports. The thieves gained access to the Dresden museum by twistingback iron grill bars on a ground-floor window, after a nearby fire at a powerdistributor likely disabled the museum's alarm system, German news outlets said....Read More
RAPAPORT... Hong Kong-based jeweler Tse Sui Luen (TSL) raised concerns about theimpact of the Hong Kong protests on its business, as weak consumer sentimentdented sales. "The weak local consumer sentiment as a result of citywideprotests has made it challenging for retailers to operate," the company saidlast week. "The situation was exacerbated by the significant drop in visitorarrivals, parti...Read More
RAPAPORT... Stargems sold nearly $50 million worth of rough diamonds ata tender in Dubai this month. A total of 577,000 carats of high-quality rough from acrossAfrica went on sale at the Dubai Diamond Exchange's Almas Towers, withmore than 500,000 of those originating from the Sacim mine in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo. More than 200 international buyers attended the sale,one of the larges...Read More
Diversified miner Anglo American has become a member of ResponsibleSteel, a nonprofit organisation and the steel industry's first global, multi-stakeholder standard and certification programme.ResponsibleSteel covers the entire steel supply chain, from raw material supply through steel processing to use, reuse and recycling.AdvertisementIt provides a forum to build trust and achieve consensus...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gemfields raised $27.2 million at its November sale, capping offthe miner's second-highest annual results in 10 years. "[The company] has realized $79 million of auction revenuesin 2019, the second-best calendar year performance since the auction system wasintroduced a decade ago," Gemfields managing director Adrian Banks said Friday. The miner sold 320,000 carats of rough emerald...Read More
RAPAPORT... Two of the top US department stores noted strong jewelrysales in the third fiscal quarter, even as their overall sales disappointed. "In terms of specific results, our top-performingmerchandise categories in the quarter included fine jewelry, footwear, men'sand women's apparel," J.C. Penney chief financial officer Bill Wafford saidlast week on an analyst call transcribed by Seekin...Read More
RAPAPORT... The definition of a conflict diamond will remain unchanged, despite a three-year effort to broaden the mandate of the Kimberley Process (KP). Government representatives were not able to reach the required consensus on the issue at last week's plenary meeting in New Delhi, India. The meeting on November 22 marked the end of the KP's three-year review period, thus presenting a final...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered two diamonds weighing more than100 carats from its Let??eng mine in Lesotho. The miner found a 120-carat, high-quality, white, type IIa diamond onNovember 20, and a 125-carat, low-quality stone on November 19, it said. The stones are the ninth and 10th of that magnitude for the company so farthis year. It recovered five high-quality white stones and thre...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Attempts to strengthen the scope of the Kimberley Process (KP) failed at the recent KP plenary after government representatives failed to reach a consensus.Despite the lack of progress, the World Diamond Council (WDC) said it continued to be committed to advocating for change. WDC president Stephen Fischler called the failure to achieve consensus, "a missed opportunity to enhance t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - LVMH has raised its bid for U.S. jewelry chain Tiffany & Co to almost $16 billion, according to reports by Reuters. Earlier this month, Tiffany turned down the French luxury group's $120-per-share offer, arguing that the company is worth more.Reuters quoted sources that said Tiffany agreed to give LVMH access to its books. They also said the jewelry company plans to contin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand that uses lab-grown diamonds and recycled gold has received $1.2 million in seed funding. Kima?? ?, which has been worn by the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, Emma Watson and Jessica Alba, aims to bring "transparency, innovation and inclusivity to a consciously minded generation of consumers." Kima?? ? handmakes it pieces in Antwerp, us...Read More