Diamond Shavings: Your Friday Web Roundup

- Chaim on mining musical chairs. There is a dizzying amount of rumors and speculation here. One new twist: If Anglo sells its current De Beers ownership stake (which Chaim calls “likely”) De Beers might sell the remaining stake to a sightholder (he mentions Steinmetz) that would market all its production. Could the amount of sightholders fall to one?

- De Beers plans less generic advertising.

- Diamond prices to remain firm (over the long haul.)

- Gemesis to produce pinks and blues. A Florida newspaper is impressed.

- Specialty jewelers vs. online. (Idex/Gassman)

- Another “diamonds as investment” article.

Media Watch:
-Wall Street Journal articles on “diamond hunters” and people avoiding diamond engagement rings. (I should note that the WSJ site is kind of weird, and those links sometimes give you the articles, and sometimes ask for a password. If anyone can’t get the articles and wants them, you can email me, rbates at reedbusiness.com. And I will also add that the second article is dumb, in all the ways we have come to expect, and that’s without going into the murky waters of the whole Bushmen thing. Julie Christie was quite fetching back in the day, but I don’t think she really commands much popular attention. And if you are morally opposed to diamonds and think they are passe, why use them as side stones?)
- The Spectator: London diamond trade having the same problems as every other city’s diamond trade.
- India’s Economic Times worries about impact of African diamond duty.

More from the World Diamond Council meeting in Jerusalem:
- Update on the Kimberley Process.
- Roundup of speechifying.
- The Jerusalem Post wonders where Leviev was.

- Russia to end tender system.

- Battle over diamond tax in Canada.

- A DTC-sponsored Arab diamond poetry contest. Groovy.

- You’ve come a long way baby: De Beers rates high in Corporate Social Responsibility.

- Forget Federated! It’s Macy’s!

- UN/World Bank gets involved in Zimbabwe diamond dispute.

Bloggery:
Vegas to the rescue?

Feel free to comment on any of the above by hitting the button below, and enjoy your weekend ….