Last week’s memo reflected market sentiments linking the selection of DTC sightholders and its rough distribution decisions to De Beers’ corporate interests in its LVMH joint retail jewelry venture. It implied that De Beers may be “cornering” the market of the larger goods, strengthening a monopoly status on the upper... Read More...

Some of the (many) New York DTC sightholders removed from the client list have the most amazing, exciting and successful marketing programs. The argument given in most instances to justify the removal is rough “availability”. Read More...

The boardroom drama that took place last week at Trans Hex was stuff of which movies are made of. What was seen as an exciting and done (!) deal was "hijacked" by a third party that now is trying to gain entry into Trans Hex by bringing itself in with the goods of an earlier deal. Read More...

The Internet can be a very dangerous medium. An authoritative mining website carried a sensational story this week headlined "Scoop ….De Beers May Make An Offer For BHP Billiton's Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada." After explaining the great logic of such a move it even intimated that " the word is that a price of between $600 million and $700 million may be agreed." That is such a ridiculously Read More...

Not so long ago, smoking a cigarette in a restaurant or referring to your secretaries affectionately as ‘the girls’ were perfectly acceptable practices even though one might argue over each of them. Today these girls are ‘staff persons’, and smoking is out - period. When time-honored practices carried out in good faith and with no ulterior motives suddenly... Read More...

Success begets success. Washington policy makers and international organizations (such as the World Bank) have “discovered” the Kimberley Process and are now exploring whether the system can be effectively applied to other commodities as well. Suddenly, academicians... Read More...

In a very carefully crafted speech in Johannesburg, De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer outlined what he sees as the “limits” of Kimberley Process. Nicky seems to go “further” than most of the industry would like... Read More...

Sometimes when filing an article, some facts may already have changed when it gets uploaded. Last Wednesday (Yellowknife, NWT, Canada time), De Beers Canada president joined the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) hearings in the Snap Lake licensing process, putting to rest any uncertainty on who-is-in-charge and rumors about changes at the... Read More...

The arctic tundra lands in which De Beers hopes to build eventually its first Canadian mine, fully underground and under a lake, are extremely sparsely inhabited. Environmentalists call the De Beers Snap Lake Diamond Project "a Greenfield development", a proposed new mine in a previously undisturbed area. The area finds itself within the migratory range of the caribou herds... Read More...

In 2002, the Argyle mine's production grew by 28% from 26.2 million carats to 33.5 million carats. That also meant more rough sales to India. Though 2002 worldwide new diamond production (industrials, near-gems and gems all together) would be around 120 million carats, the Indian industry alone imported some 129.3 million carats of rough last (calendar) year, at an average... Read More...