De Beers Auction Sales Launches Third Party Polished Diamonds B2B Pilot

(IDEX Online) – De Beers' Auction Sales business will offer midstream diamond companies the opportunity to sell certain types of polished diamonds to other trade participants on its auction platform, the company has announced.

The new limited scope, business-to-business pilot is an extension of the service for rough diamonds that was launched earlier this year. It follows existing customer demand for an equivalent service for their polished diamonds. As with the third party rough diamond auction pilot, any seller wishing to use the service will need to comply with a range of ethical requirements.

These include:

• Seller Integrity: All sellers must comply with the Registered Seller Declaration of Compliance, Integrity and Probity, which outlines the requirements for auction participation, comply with De Beers' Best Practice Principles and comply with anti-corruption laws.

• The De Beers Auction Sales Source of Origin Provenance Process: All polished diamonds must be accompanied by a suite of evidence that documents the diamond’s manufacturing history. This enables De Beers Auction Sales to confirm that the polished diamond has been manufactured from a rough diamond whose provenance is assured through the Kimberley Process. The De Beers Auction Sales Diamond Trading Standard, initially introduced when the third party rough diamond selling service was launched, has been extended to provide assurance as to the provenance of polished diamonds.

• Product Disclosure: All diamonds offered for sale on the platform must undergo a comprehensive three-level screening process to identify synthetic and/or treated polished diamonds.

"By ensuring that sellers comply with these additional requirements on integrity, polished diamond provenance and product disclosure, buyers will be able to bid on these stones with confidence," the miner said in a statement.

In line with De Beers Auction Sales’ rough diamond service, the polished diamond service is available for single stones over five carats in weight or of fancy color. The service will offer eligible diamond businesses a new route to market and enable them to benefit from De Beers Auction Sales’ expertise, technology and distribution network.

Neil Ventura, Executive Vice President, De Beers Auction Sales, said: “As a business, we’re always looking to innovate and find new ways to meet our customers’ needs. Testing new ideas through pilots such as this is an important part of this process and we look forward to seeing how the trade responds to the extension of the third party selling service – once we have some initial feedback we can decide whether there is sufficient demand to continue with it. 

“An important consideration was whether we could offer the same industry leading level of assurance regarding provenance – and with our provenance checking process, created in consultation with existing customers, we are confident that we are able to do so,” he added.