News
Namdeb seeks State recapitalisation as diamond prices erode revenue
Namdeb Holdings, comprising Namdeb and Debmarine Namibia, has approached the Namibian government for financial assistance as falling global diamond prices cut into revenue, The Namibian reports.
Today
Nornickel and Reksoft Implement "smart vision" to protect production
Nornickel has deployed a neural network-based video analytics system across its facilities, designed to prevent equipment breakdowns and production stoppages, the company’s press service reported.
Today
Lundin achieves record quarterly gold output at its flagship Ecuador mine
Vancouver-based Lundin Gold has reported that in the third quarter of 2026, gold production at its Fruta del Norte mine in southeast Ecuador hit a new quarterly record.
Today
Richemont, Signet in talks to join De Beers consortium – report
Luxury group Richemont and US retailer Signet Jewelers are in advanced talks to join the Global Diamond Consortium (GDC) bidding for De Beers, according to five people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports.
16 october 2026
Rio Tinto begins Q4 of 2026 with strong operational performance
The Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto has reported its third-quarter 2026 results, highlighting strong operational performance.
16 october 2026
The grey market
17 may 2016
(economist.com) - In 1965 Diana Vreeland, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, coined a phrase “youth-quake” to describe how baby-boomers were shaking up popular culture. Today the developed world is in the early stages of a “grey-quake”. Those over 60 constitute the fastest-growing group in the populations of rich countries, with their number set to increase by more than a third by 2030, from 164m to 222m. Older consumers are also the richest thanks to house-price inflation and generous pensions. The over-60s currently spend some $4 trillion a year and that number will only grow. Yet companies have been relatively slow to focus on this expanding market—certainly slower than they were to attend to the youth-quake. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) calculates that less than 15% of firms have developed a business strategy focused on the elderly. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation to The Economist, found that only 31% of firms it polled did take into account increased longevity when making plans for sales and marketing. One reason for this tardiness is that young people dominate marketing departments and think that the best place for the old is out of sight and mind.
The State of the Global Diamond Industry Going Into Summer 2016
16 may 2016
(paulzimnisky.com) - As April 2016 concludes, the diamond industry has without question improved relative to a year ago, however, current industry data and commentary paints a mixed picture as to whether market fundamentals have in fact stabilized enough to support a new wave of sustainable growth continuing into the near-to-medium-term. 2016 rough sales through April have surprised to the upside, with De Beers and Russia's Alrosa (RTS: ALRS) selling a combined $3.1B, which is an 18% improvement over a year ago, but still 13% below comparable 2014 figures. The demand so far this year is indicative how under-stocked the mid-stream sector was following very cautious inventory management going into holiday-season 2015. In addition to inventory shortages, rough buyers benefited from a ~7% De Beers price cut in January which allowed for diamond manufacturer margin improvement, further supporting demand. Demand followed through in February which allowed De Beers to raise prices ~2% at its third sight of the year in April, the company’s first price raise since Q4 2014. It appears that the midstream segment of the industry is adjusting to the new environment of reduced credit availability and is now more cognizant of the greater sensitivity the industry faces to macro market shocks. Diamond manufactures are seen buying rough stock only 3-months in advance, where as in the recent past they would buy 6-months out or more.
Chinese travelers spend 32% more in Asia as Europe tourism hurt by attacks
13 may 2016
(jingdaily.com) - The recent terrorist attacks in Europe led to a 24 percent global Chinese tax-free spending decline in March as sales in Asia grew significantly, according to a new report by Global Blue. The tax-free shopping provider’s newly released “Globe Shopper Report: China Edition” finds that this drop comes after the growth rate slowed to 11 percent in January and only 5 percent in February. The terrorist attacks in Paris in November and Brussels in March were a significant factor in this drop, according to the report, which says that 56 percent of respondents in a survey of 5,000 regular Chinese travelers said that safety was an important factor in choosing a destination. While Europe cooled, Asia saw a much stronger Chinese tax-free spending growth rate of 32 percent for the first quarter of this year, with Chinese shopping hotspot Japan seeing an especially significant growth rate of 50 percent. Chinese tourists made 54 percent of all tax-free purchases in the APAC region.
Contrarians survive mining market cycles
12 may 2016
(miningmx.com) – If you accept the definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result”, then we must be crazy in this industry. Every last one of us. The failure rate of mining projects and companies is remarkable and possibly unique in business, and yet we keep developing projects badly and wasting money in the same ways. An analysis of mining project failure over the last four decades reveals that the causes of failure are remarkably consistent. In a nutshell: inappropriately qualified (and too often unscrupulous) and incentivised people are being given too much money with too little oversight to develop projects with too little merit when commodity prices are high. This leads to wholesale failure and value destruction when commodity prices are low.
Standard Chartered Said Selling $4.4 Billion of Asian Assets
11 may 2016
(bloomberg.com) - Standard Chartered Plc is seeking to sell at least $4.4 billion of assets in Asia, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the lender pares its balance sheet after booking record impairments. The London-based bank is speaking with potential buyers for about $1.4 billion of stressed loans made to Indian firms including GMR Infrastructure Ltd., according to the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. Standard Chartered has also started a sale of around $3 billion of assets in the rest of Asia, one of the people said. Those assets include loans as well as proprietary bond and equity investments in China, Indonesia and Malaysia, another person said. Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters has pledged to review all of Standard Chartered’s business lines and customer relationships, ranking their risk and returns, with the aim of restructuring or jettisoning about $100 billion of assets. In February, the bank posted its first annual loss since 1989 as revenue fell and loan impairments nearly doubled to the highest in its history.
