Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

A 478-carat diamond was sold for $18.4 million to a unit of the UK-based Graff Diamonds on Tuesday by the government of the southern African Kingdom of Lesotho.

The diamond, which is the 20th largest rough diamond ever discovered, was the named the Light of Letseng, said Gem Diamonds.

The company stated that the diamond was sold in Antwerp for $38,400 per carat, which was beyond the global average diamond price of $90 per carat.

                     

The diamond was originally discovered from a mine in Lesotho controlled by Letseng Diamonds, a 30-70 affiliation between the government of Lesotho and Gem Diamonds.

The Letseng mine is known for producing four of the world’s 20 largest rough diamonds. Of these four diamonds, three have been bought by Graff Diamonds.

Laurence Graff, Chairman of Graff Diamonds, holds an 8.2 percent stake in Gem Diamonds.

The shares of Gem Diamonds were up 0.8 percent at 252 pence at 0808 GMT on Tuesday.

The diamond industry has agreed on stopping to import rough diamonds temporarily in order to limit the crash of the international meltdown on the industry. The Gem & Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has made the decision at a meeting a couple days ago.

The council had requested its members to stop importing diamonds for at least five weeks, starting November 25th. Chairman of GJEPC, Vasant Mehta, said, “We have decided not import rough diamonds from November 25 to December 31. We have asked our members to act accordingly.” He explained further that stopping of imports would cause fewer roughs to enter the diamond pipeline, allowing manufacturers an opportunity to clear older stocks.

     

Mehta continues, stating, “It will also help the industry in facing the challenge that has arisen out of the turmoil in the global financial market.” Council officials added that if the situation does not get better by then, then the time of import of diamonds might be extended.

The previous chairman of GJEPC, Sanjay Kothari, said that due to the recession in the U.S. and other major markets, the demand for diamonds was very weak. He concludes by saying, “The liquidity situation is also not very god. We feel that the move to stop imports will help the industry in general.”

In the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, miners from Gem Diamonds mining group have found one of the largest diamonds in the world. The white gem is nearly flawless with a weight of nearly five-hundred carats.

After being discovered in the Letseng Mine on September eight, the gem was taken for examination by experts in Antwerp who stated that the weight was 478 carats with hardly any inclusions and of excellent color and clarity.

The company said, “It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D color round polished diamonds in history.”

Letseng is knwon to be one of the most productive mines in history, producing four of the world’s twenty most massive rough diamonds in history, including the three largest found this century.

It is difficult to value the diamond before it is cut into gems, although a spokesman for Gem Diamonds said a similar weight stone with lesser-wuality color and clarity had lately been sold for $12 million.

Clifford Elphick, chief executive of  Gem Diamonds stated, “Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity.”

Gem diamonds owns 70% of Letseng. The government of Lesotho owns the other thirty percent.

The Cullinan, which was discovered in South Africa i 1905, is still the world’s largest diamond since. The diamond weighed over 1,300 carats before being cut up into over one hundred separate gems. Most of those gems are a part of the British crown jewels.

A treasure hunter using a metal detector finds a medieval gold ring with a rare black diamond ring set inside.

A forty-two year old from Hinckley named John Stevens noticed the ring had some lettering after he brushed off the mud signifying that it was of the early medieval period, probably the 11th century.

Not having been valued yet, the ring is presumed to be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Brett Hammond, a specialist in antiquities said, “It was clearly an important item of treasure, It is a gold ring possibly containing a rare black diamond. It is a beautiful early medieval inscribed finger ring that would have been owned by a very wealthy person, in the church or possibly even royalty.

        

“Common people in that era were not even allowed to own gold, so it must have been owned by a powerful person.”

Since black diamonds are so rare nowadays, coming from Africa, then going back about 1,000 years ago, black diamonds must have been even rarer.

John Stevens states that he was in a ploughed field with a bunch of friends when he came across the ring about five inches deep. He says, “It is boldly inscribed with lettering that certainly looks very early medieval to my untrained eye.

“I don’t know yet what the letters spell out, but if they indicate a royal owner it might be worth tens of thousand of pounds.”

While walking in the parking lot of the Tysons Corner shopping mall , Keith Stetzer of Fairfax, Virginia had stumbled upon a 3.02 carat platinum diamond engagement ring. Not thinking twice about it, the man noticed the name Mervis imprinted on it and took it straight to Mervis Diamond Importers, which is a Washington DC Jeweler in order to find the owner of the ring. The jeweler appraised the ring at over $40,000.

Keith had stated, “I’m just trying to return something somebody lost. Its not mine. I didn’t earn it.” Jon Mervis collected 20 years of records with customers who had purchased a diamond ring similar in color and clarity to the one found. Almost immediately after the story got to the press, people began calling to claim the ring.

 Mervis began his search for the rightful owner by comparing his claimants’ certificates to the measurements and description of the stone that was found. Only one certificate had passed the test. The piece of evidence that confirmed the match of the certificate to the ring was that the matching certificate showed that the diamond was one of a limited edition diamonds produced in the year 2000 by the Washington DC Jeweler. If the found diamond was actually the same stone, then the diamond should contain the laser inscription, “Mervis 2000.” After examining the diamond under magnification the marking was indeed found on the stone and the match was made.

The Washington DC Jeweler has since been confronted with over a dozen other such cases of either lost or found diamond rings. Jon Mervis decided that since a diamond ring can be something very important and meaningful to a lady, he created an online Diamond Ring Lost and Found site.Â

Black diamonds are known to be very hard to grade and process due to its color. Therefore, black diamonds require high grade of industrial art, which makes people want it more than other diamonds.

Black diamonds, along with green, yellow and red are considered fancy diamonds. What makes colorful diamonds is usually solar radiation. However, black diamonds receive their color through a large amount of small embeddings.

Black diamonds were known to mankind several hundred years before they actually became popular in the nineteen nineties. Since black diamonds are becoming even more famous, the jewelry manufacturing industry is producing the diamonds using radiation.

One of the most famous black diamonds known to history is called ‘Black Orlov’, which was once owned by the Russian princess Nadia Vygin-Orlov.   

                            

The 67-carat cushion cut diamond has been covered in mystery throughout its history ever since. Rumors were spread about the ‘Black Orlov’ being stolen in India and then belonged to the Russian princess. Then there are those others who believe of a curse on the diamond, which had no proof of it.¼/p>

Suspicious agents caught a Georgian man with rough diamonds worth about $200,000, after searching through his luggage.

The Ben Gurion International Airport’s Department of Customs had taken away diamonds worth over NIS 700,000. Unit officers then arrested the Georgian man who took responsibility for the diamonds and tried to smuggle the precious stones into Israel. After being taken to the Magistrate’s court in Ramla the suspect was released under specific circumstances.

Tangis Kikinashvili, the suspect, picked up his suitcase after landing in Israel and passed through the green custom lane, which meant nothing to declare, but raised suspicions of the drug and customs officers. When the customs agents finally opened the luggage, they were left in shock to reveal a large amount of rough diamonds.

After being taken in to Ben Gurion Airport for questioning by the Department of Customs, Kikinashvili had confessed about knowing of the law which required a fee for responsibilities put to customs on particular goods. Kikinashvili had also estimated the value of the diamonds to be around $200,000.

Conversely, the customs unit that are investigating the case claim the worth of the diamonds to be much more than the amount the suspect had estimated. An electronic check done on the man found that he is not part of the Stock Exchange and thus forbidden to trade diamonds in the country.

Moreover, the diamonds had been discovered to be part of an offense committed against the Kimberly Treaty of 2002, which is a worldwide treaty intended to abolish the occurrence of ‘conflict diamonds‘ or ‘blood diamonds‘.

There is a serious concern on how the jewelry industry will endure the downturn. Can it be said that a diamond is a commodity? It is believed that branding will destroy dealer markers for generic diamonds. The Rapaport International Diamond conference for this year will be discussing such issues and other imperative matters concerning the jewelry industry.

The group’s CEO, Martin Rapaport says, “This year’s conference is about survival- your survival. The old game of price, quality and service competition is over. How are you going to compete against a recession, credit crunch and double-digit inflation? The key is strategic thinking. Strategic competition. Those that think smarter will survive. Those that don’t, won’t.”

The conference will include a variety of speakers and topics such as Gerald Celente of The Trends Research Institution (U.S. Economy); Ralph Desitino, Chaiman, Gemological Institute of America (Branding); Neal Goldberg, President and CEO, Zale Corporation (Retailing); Rahul Kadakia, Senior Vice President, Christie’s America (Auction Markets); Rajiv Mehta, CEo, Dimexon Diamonds and Executive Director, Eurostar Diamonds (Diamond Markets); Mark Moeller, CEO, R.F. Moeller Jeweler; President, American Gem Society (Retailing); Martin Rapaport, the Rapaport Group (Commoditization); James E. Shigley, PhD, Distinguished Research Fellow, Gemological Institute of America (Technology); Victor van der Kwast, CEO, ABN, AMRO, International Diamond and Jewelry Group (Economy and Finance).

The cost for the conference will begin at $ , along with a formal luncheon for $. Lastly is a special Hotel/Conference Package offered for $599. The package includes a special one night deluxe room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The earnings from the conference will be donated to the Jewelers of Children and the non-profit Fair Trade Diamond and Jewelry Association.

The very well known company with its owner who is popularly known as Jacob the Jeweler is sewing Wyclef Jean for over $300,000 for watches and jewelry that was bought from the company.

Jacob Arabo may be locked up in prison for the next 2 1/2 years for denying the involvement in a drug ring to federal investigators, but that definitely doesn’t stop him from continuing his business.

On Tuesday, the company filed papers in Manhattan Supreme Court saying that the former singer, Wyclef Jean purchased a number of items going back to March 2002, until January 2006, with the total amount adding to, $765,100.

Although, the singer has not yet finished the payments fir the entire sum, leaving him in debt for another $319,680. The New York Daily News described the complaint of the company by quoting them asking for, “repeated demands for payment.”

Several purchases, which Wyclef made, included a Chopard watch worth $225,000, 4.85- carat diamond stud earrings costing $30,000, and a diamond Jesus head for $12,000.

Arabo, who is also identified as the King of Bling in the hip-hop world is especially famous for doing business with bejeweled stars such as, Eva Longoria, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Madonna, Elton John, Kanye West and Sean Diddy Combs.   

Representatives of Wyclef had not responded right away, when contacted through email.

Wyclef Jean has been very involved in helping out his country, Haiti, through his foundation called Yele Haiti, which successfully raised millions of dollars for the cause of providing food, creating jobs, and supporting local cultivation.

Wyclef also started a project called, “Together for Haiti” and on his website, described the charitable project as an “emergency allegiance for food crisis relief.”Â