In order to enhance the integrity of the Diamond Trading Company’s (DTC) Sightholder selection process, the DTC and De Beers have agreed to separate the responsibilities for the distribution of rough and for the marketing and... Read More...

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Faced with a considerable liquidity crunch, various parties in the diamond industry are making great efforts to draw in capital from the outside. Read More...

Forget the so-called Diamdel restructuring. The genuine exercise of aligning and downsizing the operation in line with the reduced future rough supplies has been put on hold. A potential Enron-type...  Read More...

Notwithstanding the prohibition of Sightholder applicants to talk about the confidential DTC sight-application processes, you can detect a rising sense of frustration as the contract proposal deadline nears. Read More...

Can an organization suffer from schizophrenia? Or is paranoia a better word? Can an organization suffer from impairments in its perception of reality? If the answer is yes to all of the above, should one politely ignore the relevant symptoms? These scary thoughts crossed my mind while... Read More...

Come 2008, how many DTC Sightholders can be supported by De Beers’ own production? Of course, it is a total arbitrary decision what the minimum size of a Sight should be – and the new system in which applicants apply for specific boxes in 16 different... Read More...

In our “musical chairs” column last week, we mused about the contraction of the rough diamond supply sources that is likely to occur after the current surge of acquisitions and mergers in the mining world will end. Read More...

Playing musical chairs is a game that doesn’t need much explanation: a few kids run around a small number of chairs, and when the music stops one of them will find himself or herself without a place to sit. Read More...

DTC Sight-application policies are becoming increasingly bewildering. At the last Sight, clients were given consultation document suggesting that applicants with a material interest in a diamond-mining business will now also be allowed to apply for a DTC Sight. Not only is this announcement odd, so is its timing; it came well... Read More...

In the history of any industry, there are those rare defining moments, - events so significant that one can only fully comprehend their importance many years after they occur. One rarely gets a sense of being part of history in the making. We have written... Read More...