Global rough diamond production about to reach its peak

Canada's Lucara Diamond Corp, building the AK6 mine in Botswana, said on Friday strike action in South Africa’s steel sector was delaying deliveries to the project, though it did not yet know the full impact on the mine's schedule. AK6 was on track so far, being 60% complete. The company’s other projects include Mothae Diamond Project, located in Lesotho, and Kavango Project, located in northeast Namibia.

A diamond trader of Surat died, while three others sustained serious injuries in the bomb blast that took place at Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, on Wednesday evening. Part of a group of traders that went to Mumbai for business, they were caught up in the bomb. Image from YouTube.

"Many of the Opera House diamond merchants' clients are from Israel...they are no strangers to terror and blasts," said Vasant Mehta, a leading merchant who was at home recovering from fever when the blast tore through Mumbai's congested diamond district.

Neighbour South Africa's influential Business Day reports as Zimbabwe’s shaky unity government inches ahead with extensive electoral reforms ahead of fresh elections now expected next year, the prospect of the country’s army seizing power looms large. In recent weeks, the military’s top brass has taken on a visible role in the country’s political affairs and has been brazenly opposed to security sector reforms. The military seized control of Zimbabwe's rich diamond fields in Chiadzwa in 2006 and most observers believe an international ban on these gems are being widely flouted.

Diamond miner and retailer Harry Winston posted a 4 percent rise in ore processed in the second quarter, helped by the recovery of higher grades, and the company will hold three rough diamond sales by the end of July.

Network Alliance, a specialist IT and network solutions provider for small and medium enterprises, has announced the successful completion of the South African phase of its first major Riverbed project.

Diamonds have the potential to act as building blocks for quantum computing. In an article published in Nature Physics last month, a group of researchers found that the nitrogen vacancy centre in a diamond can be used for quantum memory. The paper was published by the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara, California; and the Department of Physics, University of Konstanz. Researchers named were G. D. Fuchs, P. V. Klimov, and D. D. Awschalom.

Polar bears were the theme of the diamond jewelry items presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to Canada's Northwest Territories. The newlyweds received a set of diamond pave cufflinks modeled after the polar bear logo of the NWT Government, and a diamond pave brooch also in the shape of the North's iconic bear.

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday the Harare government is investigating De Beers over claims it smuggled out gems worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" from the controversial Chiadzwa fields. De Beers spent eight years exploring the fields, but later claimed it had failed to find any meaningful deposits according to Zimabwe's deputy mines minister. Diamonds were found by villagers in Chiadzwa in 2006, leading to a frenzied diamond rush that was eventually crushed by the army. Zimbabwe's diamonds are the subject of an international ban although most industry watchers believe it is being widely flouted.