Gem Diamonds cuts jobs and pay to ride out rough times
The owner of the famed Letseng mine in Lesotho said it planned to cut 250 jobs or a fifth of its workforce, temporarily cut the salaries of its directors, executives and management, and sharply curtail its waste mining activities.
'Considering the prolonged weakness in global diamond prices, compounded by a weak US dollar and ongoing US tariff uncertainties, Gem Diamonds has implemented decisive measures to conserve cash and protect shareholder value,' it said.
The shares fell by 13 per cent to 5¼p after it outlined what it described as 'necessary operational changes and cost management measures' in response to 'continued challenging market conditions'. The one-time FTSE 250 company is now worth just £7 million.
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's report on Alaska Natives' response to oil and mining proposals
President Donald Trump 's administration and its allies have pushed aggressively for drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. This has intensified long-standing debate over extraction projects in the nation's largest state, particularly within Alaska Native communities. Some view such projects as key to jobs and economic development. Others see them posing environmental risks as they've already faced severe fishing restrictions on the state's longest rivers due to a collapse in the salmon population. Scientists are unsure of the causes of the salmon collapse — which possibly include warming waters and commercial fishing — but opponents of extraction say its possible impacts could be similar in terms of endangering subsistence traditions and food sources. They say this risks, in turn, damaging their sacred connections to the land and to cultural traditions tied to fishing and hunting. How has the administration pushed for extraction projects? Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office in January seeking to 'maximize the development and production of the natural resources' in the state. Congress, in its recent budget bill, authorized an unprecedented four new sales of oil and gas leases in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. It also authorized more sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the northern part of the state. Extraction proposals take years to become reality, if ever. Previous lease sales have generated limited interest, and the extent of oil reserves in the Arctic refuge remains uncertain. Members of Trump's Cabinet visited Alaska in June. They called for doubling the amount of oil coursing through its vast pipeline system and building a massive natural gas pipeline as its 'big, beautiful twin.' The administration is also boosting the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project, which would include construction of a 200-mile road in wilderness areas and open the way for more mines. Private corporations are pursuing projects, some in collaboration with Alaska Native corporations — which sometimes are in conflict with their Indigenous shareholders — and landowners. One is an oil exploration project in the Yukon Flats. Another is a proposed major gold mine in southwestern Alaska, which would require a massive dam to contain millions of tons of chemical and mineral waste. Project proponents say the dam will be safely built, incorporating the surrounding geology and state-of-the-art design. Trump's policy shifts came even as he removed one of the most prominent Alaska Native names from the official map. He returned the federal name of 'Mount McKinley' to the largest mountain in Alaska and North America. For all their disputes over extraction, Native and Alaska political leaders were largely united in wanting to keep its traditional Athabascan name of Denali, which translates to 'the high one.' What are the views of Alaska Natives favoring such projects? They say the projects can be done safely and bring much-needed jobs and economic development. They say this enables Native communities to fund services while retaining their subsistence hunting, fishing and other cultural traditions. 'We find that balance,' said PJ Simon, first chief of the Allakaket Tribal Council. 'We don't want handouts by the federal government. We want to stand on our own two feet.' Regional and local Native-run corporations, with the mandate of pursuing economic development for the benefit of Native shareholders, are actively involved in extraction proposals. In some cases, they own land and mineral rights in areas eyed for drilling or mining. What about Alaska Natives opposing such projects? They fear large-scale drilling and mining will overwhelm their ancient subsistence traditions. They say any short-term profits will precede a long-term legacy of environmental impacts to rivers, tundra and hunting grounds. 'Our people have been stewards of this land for millennia, and we've taken that relationship seriously because we have to sustain our resources,' said Gloria Simeon of Bethel, a small regional hub in southwestern Alaska, and a member of the environmental advocacy group Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. Already, tribes are struggling with severe fishing restrictions on their longest rivers, the Yukon and Kuskokwim, because of a collapse in salmon populations, which they have relied on for generations. The salmon collapse has been blamed on such factors as commercial overfishing and climate change. But many fear that extractive industries will create similar and permanent damage to caribou, salmon and other traditional food sources. 'We're already dealing with salmon problems,' said Chief Brian Ridley of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a Fairbanks-based coalition of Athabascan tribes across Interior Alaska that oppose proposed drilling projects and the Ambler road project. 'The concern is if we start going down this path anywhere along the Yukon or any of the rivers and there's a spill, would that completely eliminate all the salmon stocks?' He said it's not just theoretical. A mine disaster in Canada last year caused a massive release of cyanide-laced debris, which caused fears that contamination might spread. Such a mining accident in the Yukon watershed could 'really take all the gains that we've gotten of trying to get the fish stocks back and really put us back to zero,' Ridley said. Why are subsistence hunting and fishing so important? Alaska Native people have relied for generations on hunting and fishing to survive the brutal winters — and in modern times, as a healthier alternative to expensive groceries. Fish camps and caribou hunts are closely interwoven with cultural traditions, where elders transmit skills and stories to younger generations. 'Protecting the river and the land and the Earth is part of the partnership and the relationship that we have as caregivers,' said Simeon. Who are Alaska Natives? Alaska Natives consist of diverse cultural and language groups in the state, among them the Aleut, Athabascan, Iñupiat, Tlingit and Yup'ik. They widely share a history in the region dating back thousands of years. They also share cultural and spiritual traditions, including those closely associated with subsistence hunting, and a belief in a sacred connection to the land, water and wildlife. Specific practices vary, and many follow both traditional and Christian practices. More than 1 in 5 Alaskans identify as Alaska Native or American Indian alone or in combination with another racial group, the highest ratio of any state, according to 2020 U.S. Census figures. The 1971 Alaska Claims Settlement Act, which resolved long-standing land claims with the federal government, resulted in establishment of regional and local for-profit corporations run by Native leaders for the benefit of Native shareholders. In some cases, such corporations are involved in extraction projects that tribal coalitions from the same area oppose. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
I have fear of missing out on the car finance scandal
Banks breathed a huge sigh of relief last week when the Supreme Court ruled they were off the hook for billions of pounds worth of car finance compensation — and the celebration was shared by their shareholders. If the court had ruled the other way it would have triggered a costly compensation free-for-all in which millions of drivers who had bought a car on finance could have claimed that it was mis-sold because of hidden commission in the deals. • How drivers were sold a car finance compensation fantasy Instead, in the aftermath of the judgment, which is likely to limit payouts considerably, shares in British banks surged. On Monday, Close Brothers, a car finance lender, rose 25 per cent in the morning and was still up 23 per cent by the end of the day. Lloyds Banking Group, which also has a car finance arm, was up 9 per cent. There is no doubt that some investors did very well out of the court's decision. It has sparked a sensation I know all too well — 'fear of missing out', more commonly known as 'fomo'. Last Christmas, when it transpired that my parents and siblings would be in one place for the big day and I would be in another, my brother told me not to do 'anything ridiculous'. By this, he meant that I should avoid attempting some valiant eight-hour round trip so that the whole family could be together for a few hours. It also affects some of my financial decisions. In hindsight, I kept my cash savings in Premium Bonds for far longer than I should have done — the real average return for most holders is lower than in a standard easy-access account — because I feared missing out on a big win. • Premium Bond prizes worth £105m sitting unclaimed However, when it comes to big investment choices for my stocks and shares Isa, I've generally managed to resist. My portfolio is set up in a way that means I shouldn't have to make changes, and I'm focused on long-term growth over short-term wins. Most of my portfolio, about 80 per cent, is in a low-cost global tracker fund. This is well diversified because it tracks stock markets from different regions. The rest is in 'satellite holdings' — typically riskier or more niche investments. The idea is that you may do very well out of them, but you are also not relying on them for steady growth year-on-year. But there are some weeks when my investment fomo chips away at my 'buy-and-hold' mentality, and this week was one of them. Moments like this — when individual stocks make as much in a few hours as my portfolio has in four years — mean that it can be hard to resist following the crowd. I felt the same way when my friend made nearly £11,000 from holding the computer chip designer turned AI superpower Nvidia, or when another chose to back Rolls-Royce last year (it's up 85 per cent since January). But rationale tells me that getting a big win from single stocks isn't as easy as it seems in the days or weeks when share prices are rocketing skyward. To invest sensibly in individual companies (rather than effectively gambling), you need the knowledge and time to track the news flows, broker notes and performance of each of these companies. You probably also need a sprinkling of luck. And you only get fomo when share prices go up — you never have it over the kind of sharp market decline that you are more protected from when you have a diversified portfolio. When 'safe' bank stocks fell by as much as 90 per cent in the 2007-08 financial crash, I doubt any investors who were fortunate enough to be spared that pain felt any emotions other than relief and sympathy. Despite nervousness over President Trump's tariffs and the general state of the economy, the S&P 500 is up 8 per cent so far this year as investors continue to pump money into US stocks. The US market's collection of high-flying technology stocks have, after all, been the main place to make money for years. Nvidia is up 302 per cent in two years, Microsoft 62 per cent and Meta, Facebook's parent company, 130 per cent. Such companies are now extremely costly, and arguably very overpriced. The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (or Cape, used to measure how cheap or expensive an investment is based on its share price versus profits) of the S&P 500 is about 37x. Nvidia has a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 35x, while Tesla has a ratio of 152x. Meta and Microsoft combined are now worth twice as much as the entire FTSE 100. For context, the Cape ratio was 27x before the 2008 financial crisis and is nearing the level it was at in 1999 and 2000, during the dotcom bubble. In the aftermath, from March 2000 to October 2002, technology stocks fell nearly 80 per cent. Overvalued stocks come with risks. There is the potential that they are part of a bubble and, because their share price is based on future earnings growth, any small setback to these figures can cause steep share price declines. In general, stocks with sensible valuations tend to be less volatile and, of course, it's easier to make money if you buy a company at a good price. The fact that investors still like stocks with such high ratios looks a lot like fomo in action to me — and, unusually, I want absolutely nothing to do with it.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
China's exports and imports picked up in July, helped by the pause in Trump's higher tariffs
China 's exports surged 7.2% in July from a year earlier while its imports grew at the fastest pace in a year, as businesses rushed to take advantage of a truce in President Donald Trump' s trade war with Beijing. However, analysts said the improvement also reflected a low base for comparison in July 2024. Exports to the United States sank nearly 22% year-on-year, while imports from America fell almost 19%. But exports to Africa and Southeast Asia surged at double-digit rates as Chinese businesses diverted sales to other markets. Tariffs on Chinese goods are being considered separately from the new higher tariffs that took effect on Thursday for dozens of U.S. trading partners. China's global trade surplus for 2025 rose to $683.5 billion by the end of July, nearly a third higher than the surplus for the same period last year. The data showed that China's surplus in July was $98.2 billion, while its exports to the United States were $23.7 billion than its imports of U.S. goods. U.S. imports from China are subject to tariffs of at least 30%, with some products facing much higher import duties. Trump earlier had ordered still higher rates of up to 245%, and Beijing responded in kind, but the two sides agreed to pause those to allow time for trade talks. It's unclear if the truce will be extended beyond an Aug. 12 deadline following the latest round of negotiations last week in Sweden. The Trump administration has also raised tariffs on imports from countries other than China that it suspects of being 'transshipped" via other countries. For example, the import duty on Vietnam's exports to the U.S. now stands at 20%. For transshipped goods, it's 40%. 'With the temporary boost to demand from the U.S.-China trade truce already fading and tariffs on shipments rerouted via other countries now rising, exports look set to remain under pressure in the near term,' Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a report. Economists had been expecting China's dollar-denominated exports to grow less than 6% in annual terms in July, on a par with June's 5.8% rate. But improved trade with the rest of the world has helped offset the impact of Trump's trade war. Imports rose 4.1% last month from a year earlier, the most since July 2024, with higher shipments of crude oil, copper and soybeans. China's exports of rare earths that are vital for making many high-tech and other products and Trump has made ensuring U.S. access to such vital minerals a key part of trade negotiations, leading Beijing to promise to loosen some controls. In July, China's exports of rare earths fell 17.6%, compared with a nearly 50% fall the month before. In January-July, its rare earths exports fell 24.2% in dollar terms although they rose more than 13 percent by volume. Exports of vehicles, fertilizer, ships and auto parts also saw strong growth.
