| |
London Antwerp Diamonds Ltd.
6, Laybourne House
Admirals Way
Canary Wharf
London E14 9UH
UK
tel.: 0044(0)20 7193 6052
welcome@londonantwerpdiamonds.com
| |
| | |
| | Home
> Diamond Education
> Diamond News | | | | | | 
|
| | | | |
|
» Petra Diamonds reports first profits
|
Source: AFNS
Petra Diamonds reported its first net profits ever in the second half of 2007—$8.2 million on revenues of $32.1 million, compared with a net loss of $9.5 million on revenues of $8.2 million in the second half of 2006. (All but $400,000 of revenues this year were from rough diamond sales; the $400,000 came from sales of 27.42 carats of polished diamonds. Last year, all company revenues were from rough diamond sales.)
This turnaround was the result of the company’s development from an exploration company into a diamond producing and exploration group. In the past 14 months, the company has grown its production assets by acquiring the Cullinan, Koffiefontein and Kimberley Underground mines from De Beers, adding these assets to its exploration base in Angola (at Alto Cuilo, Luangue), Botswana (Kalahari Diamonds) and operations in Sierra Leone (Kono). Cullinan is expected to add more than 1 million carats per year of gross production and the Kimberley Underground mines are more than 100,000 carats. In Sierra Leone, trial mining continues on two shafts, with 8,640 diamonds totaling 760 carats recovered to date, including a 10.55 carat octahedron.
Group revenue growth of 291 percent was driven largely by Koffiefontein sales, which the company began recording in July 2007 and which averaged $408 per carat. The company also reported a significant increase in the prices from production at its South African fissure mines, Helam, Star and Sedibeng, which averaged $182 carat, up 44 percent. Overall South African production totaled 101,213 carats for the second half of 2007, a 17 percent increase from 86,396 carats in the second half of 2006, and 115,918 carats were sold, a 79 percent increase. In January, the company found a 50.14 carat diamond at Sedibeng, which it sold for $1.3 million.
The company continues to develop "beneficiation" (cutting and polishing locally produced rough in southern Africa). The current goal is to cut and polish 2,500 carats of rough by mid-2008. Group rough production is expected to rise to more than 1 million carats per annum by 2010, compared with a previous management target of 500,000 carats for the same period, Petra Chairman Adonis Pouroulis said.
|
|
Date: 2008-03-24 Time: 10.11AM
|
|
» Anglo American operating profit $10 billion; diamonds 5 percent of that
|
Source: AFNS
Anglo American operating profit $10 billion; diamonds 5 percent of that
|
|
Date: 2008-03-23 Time: 06.30AM
|
|
» Christie’s to auction 101 carat white diamond
|
Source: AFNS
Christie's will auction a 101.27 carat white diamond from South Africa’s Cullinan Mine (formerly known as the Premier Mine) in Hong Kong on May 28. It is expected to fetch at least $6 million.
This will be the largest diamond ever auctioned in Asia, Francois Curiel, chairman of jewelry at Christie's, said. He said only three other diamonds weighing more than 100 carats had ever been auctioned off, and all those stones were sold in Geneva. The 101.27 carat stone will be on public display as part of Christie's "Spring Masterpieces Exhibition," which includes jewelry and other items worth $342 million.
The Cullinan Mine is owned by Petra Diamonds, which bought it from De Beers.
|
|
Date: 2008-03-22 Time: 18.25PM
|
|
» DTC Botswana ribbon-cutting set for March 18
|
Source: AFNS
The Diamond Trading Company Botswana will officially open for business in the country's capital of Gaborone March 18, with the new sorting and aggregation facility to be dedicated that day by outgoing Botswanan President Festus Mogae.
The facility cost 471 million pula ($73 million) to build. It will employ 600 Botswanans to sort some 49 million carats annually of rough diamonds produced by Debswana, the 50-50 joint mining venture of De Beers and the Botswanan government. There are 39 sorting machines in the facility worth a total of 69 million pula ($11 million).
The sorting and aggregation facility will help create 3,000 jobs downstream in Botswana-based polishing plants and related facilities, once it is fully up to speed next year. So far, the Botswanan government has licensed 16 polishing plants to receive their share of domestically produced rough. By 2010, they will be receiving $550 million worth of Botswanan diamonds a year for processing.
|
|
Date: 2008-03-21 Time: 11.21AM
|
|
» IDMA calls for industry-wide diamond promotion campaign
|
Source: AFNS
The International Diamond Manufacturers Association called for an industry-wide comprehensive diamond promotion campaign, and offered to coordinate such a program itself. The organization issued the call following a two-day leadership retreat in Israel after the Third International Rough Diamond Conference that was held in Tel Aviv February 11-12. IDMA President Jeffrey Fischer said that the organization "will take a leadership role in developing specific proposals" for comprehensive, industry-wide marketing of diamonds.
The IDMA retreat was moderated by industry analysts Chaim Even-Zohar of Tacy Consultants Ltd. and Charles Wyndham of WWW International Diamonds Ltd. Fischer said participants focused on internal organizational planning, matters of concern to IDMA members and other issues confronting the wider diamond industry.
Fischer said the IDMA is concerned that the current level of rough diamond prices is based on speculation. "As a result, the diamond manufacturing sector is experiencing the collapse of already very thin profit margins. Producers large and small should take note and take appropriate action."
"The diamond manufacturing industry has historically been, and still is, production driven," he added. "Obviously, that needs to change, and soon! We therefore urge our members to face the painful reality that there is over-capacity in production in the various cutting centers, and that a significant contraction and consolidation of the manufacturing base are inevitable. We need our members to wake up to that ugly and painful situation and make the right choices for the sake of the future of their own businesses."
|
|
Date: 2008-03-20 Time: 09.15AM
|
» Diamond News Archive | | | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| |
