South Africa police standoff with illegal gold miners escalates
The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.
The Business Standard reports with gold prices setting new record highs every alternate day, jewellery makers are adopting various methods to minimise its use in diamond jewellery without compromising look and feel.
While many have increased mechanisation and reduced manufacturing of hand-made jewellery, others are replacing gold’s weight with diamond to keep investors’ interest intact. Another option is using silver with rhodium plating. Ideally, gold content in diamond jewellery should be 35% in terms of its weight. But, many jewellers have reduced gold content massively in the first half of the calendar year to keep the prices down.
The Business Standard reports in south India, jewellery makers have cut gold use to as low as 12 per cent, while in the west and east it is 15 per cent — down by eight per cent since January this year. In the north-east markets, however, gold use fell by a staggering 15 percentage points during the quarter ending June. “For the September quarter, the decline may be sharper due to continuous rise in gold and diamond prices,” said an analyst with a leading research firm.
The Asian Age reports as the market continues to pinch consumers, here’s what the designers are doing. They’re making minimum use of gold in their designs to help consumers. “Many of us are asking clients to move on from 18 carat diamond studded jewellery to 14 carat. Also, we’re trying to work with the karigars and make designs that can be made in lighter gold weight. Another option is silver with rhodium plating. We are keeping a close watch on how we use gold. I think there would be a slight dip and the prices might fluctuate, but there wouldn’t be a big slump,” says Anuradha Chhabra of Jewels by Anu.
