Botswana exported $126.1 million worth of diamonds in July of this year, the lowest level of monthly exports so far in 2010. To date, Botswana’s diamond exports totaled $1.53 billion, according to Botswana’s central bank. The low level of exports, a 55.5 percent decline compared to July 2009, is a surprising one, considering that in 2009 production levels were especially low due to the global recession.

Exports have been declining steadily since April, when the country exported $255.7 million worth of diamonds.

Year to date exports increased 45 percent compared to the first seven months of 2009, mostly due to large exports in the first quarter of the year - $760.6 million.

Source: www.idexonline.com

Only 250 such units in Surat are registered under the Factory Act

Of the estimated 3500-odd diamond cutting and polishing units in the city, only 250 are registered under the Factory Act, often leading to denial of employee benefits to workers in the industry that employs over five lakh people. Some big units employ as many as 5,000 workers.

While industry experts believe over 3500 factories are scattered in Katargam, Puna gam, Kapodara, Varachha and Mahidharpura areas of Surat, there has been no official survey to date to arrive at an exact figure.

A few years ago, when a task force formed by RBI came to Surat to find out the actual position of the diamond workers in the recession-hit industry, it was shocked to discover that a majority of the units were not registered.

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NEW DELHI: Gems and Jewellery exports may have shot up by an impressive 63 per cent in the first four months of 2010-11, but the trend is not likely to remain robust and the current fiscal may close with just about 15 per cent growth.

“We are cautious about the export growth in the coming months due to weak global recovery. We expect 15 per cent export growth in 2010-11 year-on-year,” Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) chairman Basant Mehta said.

In the first four months of 2010-11, exports of the precious items grew by 63.4 per cent to $11.4 billion year-on-year.

However, it was mainly attributed to a low base of comparison in the first four months of the fiscal 2009-10.

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The New York Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a re-hearing of the settlement of the De Beers diamond company class action law suit. The re-hearing will take place before the entire Third Circuit panel, which will be charged with deciding whether the lower court was correct in certifying the suit as a class action.

The suit and the settlement agreement were challenged on a number of grounds, including the lack of common harm to all members of the class.
Now that the class action will be re-heard, all parties in the suit will have a second chance to argue the designation of the suit as a class action.

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In a major boost to gold and diamond mining in India, mining giant Rio Tinto, which has discovered an immensely rich diamond resource of 37 million tonnes in northern India’s Madhya Pradesh state, is set to invest $79 million in the country.

The second-largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto, has decided to mine diamonds in India from its Bunder Diamond project at Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh. With an investment target of around $79 million, the owner of the fancy red and pink coloured diamonds hopes the project will substantially add to its kitty.
Madhya Pradesh is a major diamond producing state with estimated prospects of 1,200 thousand carats of diamond reserve.

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Harare — Zimbabwe’s diamond output from Marange fields could reach 40 million carats within the next three years, realising about US$2 billion per year, a Belgian diamond expert has said.

Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners are the only two mining firms extracting the gemstones in the Marange diamonds fields, occupying 10 percent of the total area.

“With the new diamond find in Chiadzwa (Marange), we are estimating 40 million carats per year and US$2 billion per year in revenue,” Mr Filip van Loere told media this week. Mr van Loere is advising the Government on ensuring compliance with the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme. The country was granted permission to sale its diamonds last month following the approval by the KP.

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Only three months after it was announced that Debswana was going to proceed with the construction of a $55-million modular tailings treatment project (MTTP) at its Jwaneng mine, in Botswana, the project has now been delayed.

Aim-listed Firestone Diamonds on Thursday informed shareholders that Debswana, which is a joint venture (JV) between De Beers and the government of Botswana, had decided to delay the implementation of the MTTP to focus its resources on existing projects at the Orapa and Jwaneng diamond mines.

In June, Firestone announced that it had been selected by Debswana to finance, build and operate the MTTP.

The company noted that Debswana had assured it that the MTTP remained a strategically important project, which would be pursued when its other higher-priority projects were more advanced.

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Sarin Technologies will offer free inscriptions on diamonds during the Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair. The inscriptions will be carried out by Sarin’s recently launched DiaScribe SL system. People interested in a free diamond inscription can stop by Sarin’s booth on September 15 or 16 and get it done on the spot. The service is limited to one diamond per visitor.

The DiaScribe SL is a new high performance and reduced cost system, Sarin said in a statement.

Source: www.idexonline.com

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses is mourning the death of former WFDB President Yitzchak Forem, who passed away on September 1 after a long illness.

Forem was elected president of the Israel Diamond Exchange in 1993 and served three terms until 1998, when he was elected president of the WFDB.

Born in Poland in 1938, Forem survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel in 1949. He served as a career IDF officer for many years, retiring at the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In 1961, Forem began working for Union Bank, which has strong links to businesses in the Israel diamond sector and diamond trade. For 16 years, he served in a number of managerial positions, and in 1978 left the bank to pursue a career in the diamond industry.

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Botswana is hoping to revive its resources sector through the introduction of new legislative measures, an official from the Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Ministry said on Wednesday. Permanent secretary Gabaake Gabaake said in Perth that the proposed changes to the legislation would be effected by the end of 2011. “The new minerals policy objectives will ensure that economic benefits for Botswana are maximised from the resources recovery, while enabling private investors to earn competitive returns,” he said.

“We take seriously the return to investors from projects and we have ensured such investors can repatriate profits so that a competitive environment to stimulate minerals exploration and exploitation ensues.

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