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Dmitry Fedorov is the founder of the eponymous jewelry house. His main focus is the creation of Orthodox-inspired premium luxury jewelry of high artistic merit. He told Rough&Polished about his journey in the jewelry industry, about choosing the ‘Orthodox...

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The president of the World Diamond Council takes time out of her busy schedule to tell Rough&Polished readers about the critical work of the WDC. Zerouki, the first female present of the body, which includes all the important industry organizations among...

14 october 2024

James Campbell: Botswana Diamonds optimistic as it enters uncharted territory of using AI for mineral exploration

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Artur Salyakayev: For me, happiness is freedom to make my ideas happen and create valuable products

Artur Salyakayev is an art entrepreneur, founder of the International Jewelry Academy (IJA) and the INCRUA jewelry company. He has initiated and developed successful projects in jewelry industry and services sector. He is also a leading expert...

30 september 2024

Paul Zimnisky: China key for sustained recovery in demand for natural diamonds, prices

The curtailing of upstream and midstream natural diamond production in the past months is starting to have an effect on prices, according to the New-York-based independent diamond and jewellery analyst and consultant, Paul Zimnisky. He told Rough & Polished’s...

23 september 2024

Lucapa identifies seven new kimberlite targets at Merlin in Australia

26 july 2022
Lucapa Diamond Company Limited has identified seven new kimberlite targets on the Merlin Diamond Project in the Northern Territory through interpretation of historical De Beers airborne hyperspectral data, as announced by the company.
As per the announcement on 11 April 2022, in 1997 and prior to mining commencing at Merlin by Ashton and Rio Tinto in 1999, De Beers used its proprietary Airborne Multispectral Scanner technology to fly over an area in the Northern Territory including Merlin. The signatures identified display elevated magnesium rich clay readings, which are commonly associated with kimberlites. The seven selected kimberlite targets lie ~3km to the east of the known Merlin kimberlites.
According to the company, the seven selected targets will be followed up with visual ground inspection, soil samples for spectral analysis and heavy mineral soil samples. The data is being integrated with existing airborne geophysics, ground geophysics, heavy mineral soil sampling and geochemical soil sampling to identify additional kimberlite targets for follow-up.
Additional geophysical work is also planned for the large magnetic target on the exploration licence in 2022. Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall said, “The identification of these kimberlite targets through interpretation of the historical De Beers hyperspectral data increases our confidence that there could be more diamondiferous kimberlites at Merlin beyond the 13 previously identified. This is a very positive first step by our technical team and we look forward to growing our exploration efforts at Merlin.”

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished