Baselworld 2008

Here are a few images from the highly exclusive watch and jewllery trade fair (4th to 10th of April 2008)

LeTemps.ch

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Fabergé

Pallinghurst Ressources restructures and clarifies coloured stones business.

By buying the prestigiuous Fabergé name from Unilever, Fabergé will once again be synonymous with exceptional quality ( - and not awful aftershave).

In its quest to create a new industry business model and restructuring the coloured stone distribution channels, Pallinghurst has constituated a rather large gemstone mines portfolio and has proposed a reverse takeover bid in Gemfields (miner listed on AIM).

Fabergé Limited has agreed to grant Gemfields an option to acquire a worldwide and exclusive 15 year license to use the Fabergé brand name in respect of gemstones (excluding diamonds) mimicking De Beer's mine-to-market business approach and creating further value under the Fabergé name.

Using the De Beer's (again) led Kimberly Program as a model and in a bid to increase the stones' value, their origin will be disclosed and the mines will be subject to monitoring to ensure that the gems are produced "ethically".
"We will guarantee the provenance," CEO Pallinghurst Gilbertson said.

Fabergé Ltd has appointed Tatiana and Sarah Fabergé to its supervisory council. The two are great-great-granddaughters of the founder of House of Fabergé, Gustav Fabergé, and will oversee product development for the business.

The House of Fabergé, jewellry, tableware and iconic egg maker from Russia was nationalized by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Sam Rubin, an American unrelated to the family, founded Fabergé Inc. after World War II, sold it in 1964, and the company was eventually bought by Unilever, which only sold it to Pallinghurst in January of this year.

A "well done" must be uttered for the very simple and effective Fabergé web page.
Fabergé Ltd Press Release

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Diamonds are forever...

Whether given by your man or by the earth, diamonds fascinate.

The "Lesotho Promise" (603 carats) one of the 15 largest uncut diamonds was sold for 12,36M dollars on the 9th of October in Antwerp to a branch of the South African Mining C° (owners of Graaf). The diamond will be cut into one heartshaped rock and smaller stones and should then fetch a price of 20M dollars...

The Lesotho diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine high in the mountains of the tiny nation which is surrounded by South Africa, by a woman who was sorting through the rocks. "She started screaming and all the staff thought she had been electrocuted," said Clifford Elphick, head of Gem Diamond Mining, which owns 70 percent of the mine. Ironically, the Lesotho Promise may not be keeping one for those who live in the place where the diamond was found. The impoverished African nation is one of the poorest countries on earth.

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