https://www.miningweekly.com
Africa|Business|Diamonds|drives|Explosives|Mining|Power|System|Technology|Testing|Trucks|Operations
Africa|Business|Diamonds|drives|Explosives|Mining|Power|System|Technology|Testing|Trucks|Operations
africa|business|diamonds|drives|explosives|mining|power|system|technology|testing|trucks|operations

Gem Diamonds optimistic about prices, tech developments

Gem CEO Clifford Elphick

Gem CEO Clifford Elphick

4th December 2019

By: Marleny Arnoldi

Deputy Editor Online

     

Font size: - +

LSE-listed Gem Diamonds CEO Clifford Elphick looks forward to 2020 and is expecting higher diamond demand and prices.

In a video interview distributed by the diamond miner on Wednesday, Elphick said 2019 had been a tough year for the diamond mining industry globally, as evidenced by major companies going into business rescue.

For example, some Trans Hex operations in South Africa had shut down, and Russian miner Alrosa had announced cutbacks in its supply.  

However, Elphick believes there are some green shoots in the industry, stating that prices had picked up from unprecedentedly low levels in the last two months.

Elphick expressed hope that this was the turnaround in pricing that the industry needed.

He stated that, for many years, the company had been speaking about a supply and demand gap and that prices would start reflecting the fact that demand was higher than supply.

“The market has looked ahead, noticing that, for example, pink diamonds were becoming more rare. Additionally, various studies had confirmed that Millennials have a high propensity to acquire diamonds, which will also contribute to diamond price increases.”

Meanwhile, Elphick said synthetic diamonds continued to emerge, for example with De Beers’ Lightbox business, and he believed it was benefitting the diamond mining industry. 

“Many people find diamonds to be too expensive, but synthetic diamonds are an easier and cheaper way to get into the diamond consumption world,” he noted, adding that synthetic diamonds were complementary to real diamonds.

Gem Diamonds, too, was looking for impactful places that it could use new technology. For example, the company has a monitoring system at its operations, which, through computing power, drives efficiencies in the dispatch of trucks, limits distances travelled, and increase efficiencies of fuels, explosives and loading.

Elphick said the holy grail of the diamond industry was to not process kimberlite that did not contain diamonds.

“Our quest has been to find a way to see diamonds in the rock. We have been at it for six years and we have evaluated many technologies and we settled on one, which, according to lab testing, showed promise.”

The company was working through some remaining tweaks to the technology and Elphick anticipated that Gem would be ready to demonstrate how diamonds could be seen through kimberlite next year.  

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Showroom

Rittal
Rittal

Rittal is a world leading provider of top-quality integrated systems for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Hanna Instruments Image
Hanna Instruments (Pty) Ltd

We supply customers with practical affordable solutions for their testing needs. Our products include benchtop, portable, in-line process control...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.142 0.179s - 108pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now