Alrosa Wants Expanded Trade with Israel

During his late afternoon meeting with the heads of the Israeli diamond industry, Alrosa’s President Alexander Nichiporuk said the cooperation with Dan Gertler is only the first of future cooperations between the Russian miner and Israeli diamond firms.

As first reported on IDEX Online, Angola will sell the entire Catoca production to Sunland, a company established in Angola by Israeli rough diamond trader Dan Gertler. Alrosa recently bought a major share in the company.

The deal is estimated at $250 - $300 million annually, and according to Gertler, the entire production will be shipped to Israel and marketed from there. This is a major boost to the Israeli center, that has lost its polishing dominance to India and is struggling to find additional rough after several Israeli Sightholders lost their DTC Sight.

The meeting yesterday at the Israel Diamond Exchange was quickly arranged, within two hours of Nichiporuk’s arrival in Israel as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to the country.

Nichiporuk was accompanied by Alrosa VP Sergey Oulin, and the head of Alrosa’s Israeli office Alexey Ivanov.

The Israelis, including newly elected IDE President Avi Paz, outgoing president Shmuel Schnitzer, IDI Chairman Simcha Lustig, the Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai and Dan Gertler, heard from Nichiporuk that Israel is an important partner and Alrosa is continuing to seek business partners in Israel.

The relations between Alrosa and the Israeli diamond industry, he added, will be based on openness, transparency and long term cooperation.

At the end of the meeting Nichiporuk invited Paz to visit Moscow in the near future.

Notably missing from the meeting was long-time Alrosa business partner Lev Leviev, who entered Angola when he invested in Alrosa’s plant in the country and later partnered with the miner when he bought an 18 percent share in the Catoca diamond mine alongside Alrosa’s 24 percent purchase.

Leviev’s partnership with SODIAM in a rough diamond marketing office in Ramat Gan, Israel, will have considerably fewer goods to offer once Gertler’s deal is sealed.