Burgundy Finds Large Cluster of Colored Diamonds

RAPAPORT… Burgundy Diamond Mines has discovered a “significant” area bearing fancy-color orange and yellow diamonds at its Naujaat diamond project in Canada.

The Australian miner completed testing on 70% of the first bulk sample it retrieved last year from the site, in which it holds a 40% stake, it said Wednesday. North Arrow Minerals owns the other 60%. Burgundy will finish testing the remaining 30% of the sample in the coming weeks.

So far, the sample has turned up 268 diamonds weighing a combined 117.98 carats, the largest of which is 3.31 carats. Of the total, 18% are fancy orange or fancy yellow, with 58% of those colored diamonds classified as either fancy intense or fancy vivid, Burgundy noted. Some 91% of all of the colored diamonds the company has recovered from the site are orange.

“These initial results…add significant confidence to past results and confirm the presence of a potentially high-value, fancy-orange and yellow diamond population,” said Burgundy CEO Peter Ravenscroft. “Once further analysis has been completed, we will be able to determine how the Naujaat project will complement our strategy of becoming a vertically integrated, end-to-end diamond company focused on fancy-color diamonds.”

In December, Burgundy signed a supply deal for fancy-color diamonds with luxury French jeweler Bäumer Vendôme, stating its intention to form similar agreements with other jewelry houses. The miner also opened a factory in Australia in July at which it plans to cut and polish fancy-color diamonds from its own projects — the country’s Ellendale and Blina mines — as well as those it will purchase from third-party suppliers.

Image: Some of the bulk-sample diamonds from the Naujaat project. (Burgundy Diamond Mines)