DTC Sightholder Opens Ontario Polishing Plant

Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd. opened a diamond polishing facility in Sudbury, Ontario. Crossworks is part of the HRA Group, a Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Sightholder that in November 2008 won the Ontario tender for 10 percent of the unaggregated rough diamonds from De Beers’ Victor Diamond Mine.

The new factory will be polishing the rough diamonds coming from the Victor Mine, located in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario.

With the new polishing facility, HRA now has three plants in Canada: Vancouver, Yellowknife and Sudbury.

The local diamond supply is part of an agreement between the government of the Province of Ontario and De Beers aimed at generating extra value from the locally mined diamonds. Crossworks, the winner of the Ontario tender, will employ 27 polishers at the new plant.

“These diamonds offer an amazing opportunity for Ontario and Canadian retailers to market premiere diamonds that are mined, cut and polished in Ontario,” explained Dylan Dix, marketing director of HRA.

To sustain the financial viability of the new plant, the polished diamonds are expected to be better quality diamonds.

“The diamonds that originate from the Victor Mine are some of the most spectacular in the world and they will be cut and polished in Ontario”, said Uri Ariel, president of Crossworks and the HRA Group. We have a strong history of polishing in Canada and I can promise that our new facility in Sudbury will be an amazing success.”

The HRA Group, founded in Vancouver in 1982, is the largest manufacturer and distributor of branded Canadian diamonds in the world.