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Showing posts from July, 2013

De Beers, Forevermark, and everybody else.....

The recent trade shows and recent press reports offer a spectrum of opinions and a range of actions in and around the diamond business that leaves a distinct sense of a train hurtling uncontrolled down a track.  No derailment (as yet) in sight, but enough clatter to cause concern. Some facts are clear: De Beers, now not totally free to act as it wishes, and now with a new CEO who comes from the mining sector, is all-in with Forevermark.  This is their future. and either it flies or they may be done, at least on the marketing side of diamonds.  Or is there another future possible? Two major mining companies, BHP and Rio Tinto,  are working to extract themselves from diamond mining, with some success.  Nominally, it is because there is not enough scale in diamond mining, or the outlook for it, to make the investments worthwhile.  BHP has made a sale, Rio Tinto has now backed off, as it could not find a proper buyer.  The banking industry is broadly retreating from financing diamo