Friday, November 28, 2008

Diamantaires Leave Taj for a Party Right Before Siege

A dinner party thrown by a leading Gujarati diamond trader saved a galaxy of diamantaires from across the world who were in Mumbai.

Varda Shine, managing director of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), a battery of senior company officials from London and a who's who of the Indian diamond industry were miraculously absent from the violent scene in the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday night.

Shine and her team members had walked out of the hotel earlier to attend a dinner party thrown by a leading diamantaire in Mumbai; luck saved their lives as gun-totting terrorists stormed the hotel around 10 p.m.

Sources said Shine and senior DTC officials arrived from London on Wednesday to attend the year-end meeting with DTC sightholders at Taj. After the meeting in the hotel was over, Shine and her team members were led out to attend the dinner party.

"They walked out of the hotel and terrorists stormed in. Had they been there, they would have been taken hostage by terrorists like other foreign tourists," said Sanjay Kothari, former chairman of the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). According to Kothari, Shine and her team members are safe and sound and they have been sheltered at residences of some of leading Mumbai diamantaires.

Rajeev Bhandari, chairman and managing director of De Beers India told The Times of India, "Shine and others are safe, and we are ensuring that they reach their destination in London safely." The meeting has been going on since Monday, when diamond traders from Gujarat participated, but Shine arrived in Mumbai only on Wednesday to address diamantaires regarding the present situation of the industry.

Chandrakant Sanghavi, regional director of the GJEPC and one of the DTC sightholders, who was supposed to attend the meeting but could not go to Mumbai due to personal engagements, said, "The terrorist attack in Mumbai is shocking. I was more concerned about our diamond industry leaders, including Varda Shine and others who were put up at Taj hotel. In the late night, we got a message that they were safe."

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Diamonds from TEQUILA and its fact

Mexican researchers have turned the country’s national alcoholic beverage tequila into diamonds. The diamonds, however, are too small to be used in diamond jewelry.

Miguel Apatiga, one of three researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who made the discovery, noted that the tequila diamonds could be used to "detect radiation, coat cutting tools or, above all, as a substitute for silicon in the computer chips of the future."

The scientists discovered that when deposited on a stainless steel base, the heated vapor from tequila blanco can form diamond films.

FACTS:
1. Too small to be used for jewelrY
2. Can only be seen under a microscope
3. Physicists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico made the discovery
4. The tequila is turned into synthetic diamonds when heated to 800 degrees
5. The heat causes the gas molecules to break and carbon atoms to be formed
6. The carbon is deposited in the form of a thin diamond film
7. The scientists used the cheapest brand of tequila to experiment, but are now researching which type will produce the best results
8. Synthetic diamonds are produced by technological processes, while natural diamonds are produced by geological processes

Friday, November 7, 2008

Martin rapaport conference in mumbai...

Martin rapaport conference held at the Taj,mumbai ended up in a very heated argument and the conference was stopped...

Points raised in the conference:

What was the need to lower the prices at such time?
How can he change the full pricelist to -5%?
Is diamond a commodity?(market rapaport thinks so)
Is rapaport jus a result of research on the U.S. market research?does he study all the markets
Has he ever taken india into consideration wen he does the research?

Rapaport was questioned about his decision to change the prices at the time when the market is under financial turmoil.
Indian diamentere requested martin rapaport to reinstate the last weeks pricelist and to freeze it for sometime.Rapaport disagrees with the arguments and blames the market for this situation.
Infact he blames people for the speculation in the market by holding the goods.how can he blame the industry?when the prices are going up its obvious people will hold the goods.

Rapaport says why do u people work on low margins.But this is not about just printing papers.india is largest manufacture of diamonds in the world and its done free.it involves a lot of expenses.
In india,people work under 5% and when pricelist goes down by 5% what will people get.

Diamond market is based on the DEMAND and SUPPLY factors...this is how the diamond market runs and is going on from the starting.
Diamond is not a commodity and theres no need to discuss it with the stocks,crude or any other commodity.

Rapaport said five to ten percent fluctuations should be taken in stride. Arun Mehta, chairman and director, B. Arunkumar countered this by saying that of an inventory worth $25bn, five percent was almost $1.30 bn, and this was not a sum to be taken lightly. He requested Rapaport to make an announcement to suspend the current pricelist and issue a revised edition considering the concerns voiced by the industry — a request that was turned down amidst a veritable uproar by the packed audience. However, in his closing statement Rapaport did concede that he would take constructive steps next time to resolve the issue.

The whole idea was to explain him the problems indian diamond industry is facing and a hope of getting the previos rap pricelist reinstated failed.
This has created a bad impact on the diamond industry

RAPAPORT has to work again on each and every clarity colour with detailed SCRUNITY.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

KARP leaving the kohinoor behind by acquring the biggest diamond


now forget the kohinoor....

KARP Impex, a DTC sightholder recently won a 128.47-carat rough diamond worth $12.13 million (Rs 58-60 crore) in an auction held at Tender House in South Africa, marking itself into the league of extraordinary achievements. The rough has been mined from the Orange River in South Africa, and has been the most expensive and the largest stone to be bought by an Indian company, so far.

KARP is preparing to cut and polish the stone at its in-house facility in India, and expects the rough to be more than 50 carats after cutting and polishing. Speaking on this Mr. Nirav Virani, Director, KARP Impex said, “We are establishing a stronger in-house R&D department equipped with new software, machinery, capable of handling a stone of this size and quality. We do deal in 30 plus carat stones, but it is for the first time that a piece of such high quality has come our way.” The new cutting and polishing set up as Mr. Virani explains will help boost the company’s portfolio into larger carat stones, beyond what it has been catering to so far. It is likely to be ready within two months. This feat exemplifies the ability of the Indian cutting and polishing centres to expand its image of catering to only small sized diamonds.

KARP has set a target to complete cutting and polishing the stone within three to four months and is likely to give the stone a name, although, it is yet pondering on the name.

When ready, the diamond is likely to be auctioned. Explaining this Mr. Virani said, “We are planning to auction the diamond sometime early next year, in Asia.” The present slowdown in the economy does not deter the positivity that the diamond will yield good results at the auction, as Mr. Virani says, “The diamond buyers will be the investors or the ones of royal family lineage, who have very high disposable income. We are in talks with Sothebys and Christie's for the auction.”

35.56 carat DYNASTY BLUE DIAMOND


A "truly extraordinary" blue-grey diamond that was given to the girl in one of the most studied paintings in Western art is to go on sale at Christie's next month.

The Wittelsbach diamond, that is 2.5cm wide, was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria.

The 35.56 carat gem could fetch as much as $A24 million when it goes on sale in London on December 10, experts said.

Should it fall short of that amount, one of the world's most beautiful coloured diamonds – with a 300-year-old royal history charting the flow of power across Europe – will have sold for less than a big fish in formaldehyde.

In September Damien Hirst's tiger shark in a tank, called The Kingdom, sold for $A23 million at Sotheby's.

The infanta, a beautiful child with blue eyes and blonde hair, was the central figure in Las Meninas (1656), the most famous painting by Spaniard Diego Velázquez.

It depicts the girl, her maids of honour and members of her family and even the artist himself curiously looking out of the painting as if on the viewers themselves.

Upon her politically-motivated engagement to Leopold I, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor, her father gave his 13-year-old daughter the diamond as part of the dowry.

Sadly she died aged only 21, having given birth to four child, of which only one survived beyond childhood.

The diamond, reputed to have originated from the Indian diamond mines, passed into the Austrian and then Bavarian crown jewels, before being sold into private hands in 1931.

It has been in the current private collection since 1964.

A Christie's spokesman said "no examples" of coloured diamonds comparable to the Wittelsbach had been ever been offered at auction before.

She said: "Blue diamonds are rare and to offer a blue diamond of this size, quality, shape and provenance is truly extraordinary."

The nearest comparable coloured diamond sold at Christie's was one just a third of the size, a 13.39 carat intense blue diamond that fetched $A10 million in May.

François Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe and its international head of jewellery, said: "It is a great honour and a lifetime dream to handle a museum quality stone such as the Wittelsbach.

"The appearance of a large blue diamond, among the rarest of colours, with a history that can be traced back to the 17th century and 300 years of royal connections will surely be a thrilling occasion for all collectors of exceedingly rare jewels and works of art."

The Wittelsbach diamond is the star lot in Christie's auction Jewels: The London Sale, on December 10.

It is on public display at the auction house in King Street, St James's, London, from December 5.

478 carat diamond found in Letseng to be unveiled in dubai




Letseng diamond mine, located in Lesotho is one of the most famous diamond mines in the world, famous for many big diamond found there. This the world's highest-altitude (3,100 m /10,000 ft) diamond mine had some pretty big discoveries in its history such as 601 carat (120 g) Lesotho Brown, recovered in 1967, in 2006 even bigger 603 carat (121 g) white diamond, the Lesotho Promise was unearthed, and in 2007 another big 494 carat diamond was found here.



The stone weighs 478 carats and is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, said Gem Diamonds.The company said the uncut rock was recovered recently from the Letseng mine, owned by the company in Lesotho.The diamond, which is as yet unnamed, has the potential to yield a 150 carat cut stone, and could sell for tens of millions of dollars, the company said.

Clarity

"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates it will yield a record-breaking polished stone of the very best colour and clarity," said the company's chief executive Clifford Elphick