Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

The growing popularity in diamonds has surely made a move on the De Beers company’s profits, increasing by 10% to 3.7 billion, which produced 24-million carats within a period of six months ending in June. South African production had fallen by 16% with the sale of Koffiefontein Mine to Petra.

Adjoining countries such as Namibian, which dropped 16%, has also been affected by the power supply crisis.

De Beers Canada put in its first diamonds after Botswana saw production decrease by one percent. Even though Canada summed to only three percent of the group’s total from the first half, it is assumed to rise again, once Snap Lake and Victor mines open this half.

De Beers, one of the largest companies of owning rough diamonds, expects its new Canadian mines to be in place of the Russian gems it is now banned from doing business with, to please competition authorities of the European Union.

 While De Beers deals with the selling of Cullinan and Kimberley’s underground operation’s to Petra, the company is also in the process of buying yet another mine here.

The chairman of the new mine, Voorspoed, says that the deal was being done nine months ahead of time. De Beers has surely marked a record for the first time of purchasing three big mines in one year.

The company of De Beers has not been listed in the stock exchange since June 2001. Yet, it continues to make its financial outcome public, as a 45% owned Anglo American supplementary, with the Oppenheimer family have possession of 40% and the Botswana government 15%. Â

A pair of diamond earrings with an average value of $20,000 were found in a New York dumpster after they were accidently thrown away.

The owner of the diamond earrings, as well as her husband and dustmen were lucky enough to find the earrings only after an intense search in filthy garbage.

The earrings, which had a total of three-carat diamonds, were an anniversary gift for Haya Sharon. The find of the earrings were considered “a miracle” to Haya Sharon, who thought she’d never see them again.

The earrings were left in a small jar of cleaning solution in the Ms. Sharon’s jewelry shop when one of the workers accidentally threw in away.

The earrings were tracked down to Fresh Kills landfill, where the garbage from New York is compacted and sent out of the state.

Keith Mellis, the dump  spokesman said it was not the first time precious stones were recovered from piles of city trash, Other such findings included engagement rings as well.

Although the relationship has been on and off for a while, Kelly Brook now seems to be making it pretty clear as she walks out in London last night with her on/off boyfriend, Billy Zane’s engagement ring.

Since her boyfriend had gotten back with her, Kelly Brook, 28, has been hesitant to wear her engagement ring, up until now.

As the model was leaving after dinner at The Ivy, she was full of bright smiles as she flashed her sparkling engagement ring worn on her left finger.

                   

Brook was gleaming with happiness and felt very content and certain.

It is obvious that Brook was trying to send some sort of message as she walked out that night, knowing she will be the center of attention.

The scene of that night is surely going to spread some rumors of an official engagement to Billy Zane, who is 42.

After a long time apart from each other, since earlier this year, the couple rekindles their romance.

But, as Kelly works in Virginia on an upcoming US TV project, the couple has not been seeing each other as often.

It has been reported that while they were having this time of separation last month, Zane was caught trying to flirt with girls in an LA nightclub.

Kelly then decided to break up her engagement because she felt that at her age she was still too young to get married.

Trying to stay apart from each other only lasted a few weeks, as it appears the couple could not live without each other while they were photographed holding hands at a cafe in London.

In May, Kelly took a flight back to Cannes so that she could be with her man as he upheld his new movie, The Man Who Came Back. It was then that the couple announced they were officially back together again.

                                                                                             

Four years ago Ebay was taken to court by Tiffany & Co. for allowing Ebay members to sell fake brand name jewelry.

After being in legal battle for such a long period of time, Judge Richard Sullivan from the US district Court in Manhattan has finally ruled that Ebay had acted just fine.

Tiffany believes that Ebay is required to watch for trademarked and copyrighted material and should have removed it immediately. Ebay has disagreed and held that it was not liable for such listings unless the trademark proprietor itself reported it. Judge Sullivan made a decision that US law does not call for proactive removal.

The 66-page ruling is quoted: “The law demands a specific knowledge as to which items are infringing and which seller is listing those items before requiring Ebay to take action, the result of the application of this legal standard is that Tiffany must bare the ultimate burden of protecting its trademark.”

Another recent situation, which occurred this spring with a German court, that ordered the online auctioneer to ensure and stop the sale of fake Rolex watches.

Ebay feels that the Tiffany suit should have never happened and states, “While today’s decision is a victory for consumer choice, it is a shame that so much effort has been wasted when Tiffany could have worked with Ebay to more effectively fight counterfeits. Ebay will continue to lead the industry with innovative solutions to stop the sale of counterfeits.”

While stock markets and real estate values decline, prices of the most rare colors and colorless diamonds are being increased and are attracting the wealthy investors as well as structured funds. Diamonds, which are a commodity rather than a necessity, are being used as a new investment.

According to the website of International Diamond and Jewelry Exchange, 5-carat gems that are originally sold for $1 million or more, have gone higher by 76.5% within the year, stopping at May 2008.

The managing director of London- based Graff Diamonds International: Francois Graff said in an interview, “There’s a group of savvy, tremendously wealthy people who have put a small portion of their fortunes aside to invest in diamonds… They’ve made incredible returns.” Graff continues to state a comparison of the present to five years ago, when dealers paid $70,000 per carat for colorless diamonds for 10 carats and above.

Dealers are now paying over $200,000 per carat.

Diamonds have become more rare then ever. Christie’s International European director of jewelry says there is an approximate of only 200 highest grade, D-flawless colorless diamonds of over five carats that are discovered per year, let alone blue and pink stones of large scale, which are even more uncommon.

According to the IDEX website, Diamond Circle Capital is the first known fund to invest in rare colored and colorless diamonds.

At an interview, Allan Bronstein, New York diamonds dealer was quoted saying, over the last twelve months, the best pink and blue diamonds have increased in prices between 75 and 100 percent.”

The Natural History museum in London now has Bronstein’s Aurora Collection of 296 colored diamonds on loan. These diamonds are considered the rarest and most beautiful makings in the world.

The diamond market is very similar to the art market in the sense that they are both based on individual dealings, says Graff. He continues by stating that, “The wealthy don’t need to invest in funds. They can just pick up a telephone and buy the things for themselves.”

Graff has sold a D-flawless, emerald-cut diamond of 243.96 carats to an Asian buyer for $99.6 million and says that this was not the only person who was ready to buy the stone. Another of Graff’s stones was a flawless 20-carat fancy deep-blue diamond, also marked for about the same price.

It is assumed that when stock markets drop it benefits the diamond district, since people with much wealth begin to turn to more tangible things to invest in. Diamond prices are expected to stay high for at least the next six months if not more, believing that the amount of colored diamonds will still be scarce.¼/p>

After receiving its first polished tender of diamonds from Ellendale in Australia, Gem Diamonds has already made it to selling 15.7 carats totaling a value of $453,102, which is $28,860 per carat. The company began its successful expansion of polished tenders in January.

CEO Clifford Elpnick is quoted emphasizing on the Ellendale tender: “The success of this beneficiation trial supports managment’s view of the significant additional margin that can be captured from the cutting and polishing of Ellendale’s top diamonds and we are very encouraged by the results.”

Gem Diamonds has already made it to selling at the tender, four intense and vivid yellow diamonds that were cut and polished from 28.5 carats of rough, by Antwerp-based Matrix Diamond Technology.

Several stones that were part of the collection included a 7.1-carat cushion cut vivid yellow diamond that was sold for $52,000 per carat., and a 2.3-carat cushion cut vivid yellow diamond, which was sold for $19,000 per carat.

 Ellendale mine was purchased by Gem Diamonds from Kimberley Diamond Company in July of 2007 for $263 million.

Once Ellendale mine came under the ownership of Gem Diamonds, the company said it has “implemented an aggressive turnaround strategy that is yielding not only more of these spectacular diamonds, but also a real return on the company’s investment.”

De Beers, one of the world’s most powerful diamond companies has raised their prices by 5% this month. Most of their diamonds come from Anglo American, a very large mining group which is 45% owned by De Beers.

 Earlier this year The Diamond Trade Company (DTC) came on with a strong demand for diamonds in the markets rising in Asia. Therefore, leading to an increase in prices by 8.5%.

Last month, a De Beers official explained that since there is such a great demand for diamonds in China, India and the Middle East then this would be an advantage to their company. U.S. sales will now become even slower then they already were before, and they cross out half of the jewelry market, giving De Beers a better chance in business.

De Beers had responded in a question through email, by saying, “Some increases have been made at the July Sight, the overall effect of which is plus five percent.”

While De Beers manages at least 40% of the diamond market, it posted flat output of diamonds last year at 51 million carats which is expected to have an outcome by 2008.

As much as Mariah has been planning a surprise, reports have gotten one step ahead of her by discovering her plans for a $4 million wedding ceremony to celebrate her marriage to the rapper, Nick Cannon.

Mariah and Nick had a secret wedding this past April in the Bahamas. Ever since that wedding, there have been reports on Mariah hosting a mind-blowing event in New York this summer, to renew their vows in front of friends and family.

Carey has been denying the rumors about the bigger ceremony up until recently when she was no longer able to keep it in, claiming that it’s just too difficult to keep the secret when the press keeps mentioning a $4 million wedding. Now she criticizes the press for spreading the stories.

Mariah describes her dream wedding by saying, “Why? What - did we set a budget? ‘It’s gonna be $4 million! It’s going to be really cool! We’re going to give away gold as people leave! We’re going to sprinkle them with gold! It’s going to be very Coming to America.’

                                                                               

“What do you think? Our whole point (in having the unannounced beach wedding) was to do the opposite!”

Mariah cannot possibly be happier, and satisfied with her new body, new record, and her hot new man as she is quoted saying, “I always wanted to be kidnapped. I just wanted a way out, but i didn’t have one…(NickCannon) He sort of kidnapped me and took me on a helicopter ride. Then he re-proposed.”

Nick Cannon first proposed to Mariah on her rooftop in Manhattan, which involved the hiding of a 17-carat diamond ring inside a candy ring pop.

Samantha Ronson has decided to take her relationship to the next level by surprising her assistant/roommate/rough sex partner, Lindsay Lohan on her twenty second birthday with a Cartier diamond ring worth $22,000. Ronson got the ring for Lindsay while the inseparable couple was shopping over the weekend. Of course, Lindsay quickly slipped the ring on to the one finger that engagement and wedding rings are worn.

This is not the first time that the couple has expressed their love through ring exchanging. The first time was back in March of this year when both roommates exchanged matching rings with each other’s initials on them, similar to girls in grade-school who would trade toys with their BFF’s trying to instill some sort of deal between themselves that their friendship will last forever with the memory of a piece of plastic.

About a month later, the rings were switched so that Lindsay had the ring with her initials and Sam had the ring with the initials, “SR.” While Lindsay had already given up on the significance of the ring, Samantha had remained devoted by wearing her neon-colored memory up until this past weekend, when the two went shopping, once again.

Their relationship definitely continued to raise suspicions as Lohan receives a new ring to flaunt about. A source had confirmed that it is not an engagement ring, just a symbol of their commitment to each other. The source explains that Lindsay is very much ecstatic and together , they are very content.

Pictures of the couple surely give the feeling that they are a bit more than just “content,” as they were intimately and openly caught kissing on P. Diddy’s yacht , recently. Lindsay had pretty much made it clear by saying, “I just want to live a happy, healthy year, continue on the path that I have been on and be with the person that I care about, and my family.” 

                                                     

Uma Thurman and her new fiance look as if they don’t want to waste much time, rushing into a huge engagement party preceding their announced engagement just last week.

The couple managed to attract a whole group of celebrity A-listers to the bash.

It was only to be expected of Busson, the multimillionaire financier, to throw a huge engagement party after giving Uma Thurman an enormous ring said to be an eight-carat center stone surrounded by twenty smaller diamonds.

          

Some of the guests at the party included Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, and supermodel Claudia Schiffer, followed by Liz Hurley, Damien Hirst, Bob Geldof, Jemima Khan and Charlotte Princess of Monaco.

 The grand party took place in a marquee in the garden of Arpad Busson’s house in Kensington, west London.

Busson is an old hand at planning such facinating parties. His children’s charity, Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), hosted a fund raising gala dinner that raised more then US $50 million last month.

The French financier is now expected to throw an even bigger wedding in order to top the engagement ring given to Uma prior to the engagement party.