Moshe Namdar Blames BHP for Closure of Canadian Plant

Moshe Namdar, Israel's third largest diamond exporter, is blaming Ekati diamond mine owner BHP Billiton for the recent closure of a Yellowknife diamond polishing and cutting plant, saying diamonds supplied from Ekati were low quality and too expensive.

The exporter went into a partnership with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to form the Canada Dene Diamonds company, which closed on May 2, putting 11 diamond polishers out of work.

According to a spokesman for Moshe Namdar in Israel, BHP Billiton is responsible for providing poor quality diamonds at a high price to Canada Dene Diamonds. “Unfortunately, as (the) expression goes: shit in, shit out. You can only do so much with what you have,” Moshe Namdar spokesman Abraham Silverstein told Yellowknife's News/North newspaper in story published May 12. Silverstein said the Ekati diamonds provided to Canada Dene Diamonds were too shoddy and too expensive to turn a profit.

Canada Dene Diamonds never got close to breaking even and Moshe Namdar was forced to close the operation, Silverstein said from Ramat Gan, Israel. "We knew going in that manufacturing costs were higher (but) we lost millions and millions," Silverstein told News/North.

As a result, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents striking Ekati diamond mine workers, is asking if BHP Billiton is sending its best diamonds for processing overseas while only making low quality diamonds available to the local diamond polishing and cutting industry at unfair high prices. 

"BHP Billiton is already treating its own workers with contempt by forcing them to go on strike to win a fair first collective agreement and now we see how poorly it treats a local business employing northerners and aboriginal workers," said Jean-Fran?ois Des Lauriers, PSAC Executive Vice-President-North.

Todd Parsons, President of the Union of Northern Workers component of PSAC, which represents Diamond Workers UNW Local X3050, said the closure and comments will harm the Canadian diamond market. "It can only hurt the international reputation of Ekati diamonds and all Canadian-produced diamonds when the diamond industry reads such negative comments coming from a leading Israeli diamond firm," Parsons said.

Moshe Namdar Spokesperson Abraham Silverstein was unwilling to comment on the story when contacted by IDEX Online.

Moshe Namdar became a partner after the predecessor of Dene Diamonds, Deton' Cho Diamonds, closed in the fall of 2002.

Ekati produces 6 per cent of the world's diamond supply by value, 4 percent by weight, and yields 3 to 5 million carats annually. It is located 300 km northeast of Yellowknife and 200 km south of the Arctic Circle.