The De Beers Group of Companies has announced the pilot launch of a new service under which the Auction Sales business will offer other midstream diamond companies the opportunity to sell certain types of polished diamonds through its platform. The step has been described as “a new limited scope, business-to-business pilot” in a statement from De Beers.
The miner said in the statement that at present the service will be restricted to single stones over five carats in weight or of fancy colour which additionally satisfy certain other criteria laid down by the Company.
It may be recalled that earlier this year, in a major departure from its previous practices, De Beers Auction Sales had commenced a similar pilot for certain categories of rough diamonds mined by other companies. The polished diamonds service is an extension of this, De Beers said in the announcement, adding that it is based on existing customer demand.
Similar to the third party rough diamond auction pilot, third party sellers will have to comply with a Registered Seller Declaration of Compliance, Integrity and Probity, as well as the De Beers Best Practice Principles and relevant anti-corruption laws.
The polished diamonds will also have to be compliant with the De Beers Auction Sales Source of Origin Provenance Process. They must be accompanied by a suite of evidence that documents the diamond’s manufacturing history and confirms that the polished diamond has been manufactured from a rough diamond whose provenance is assured through the Kimberley Process. They should also meet the De Beers Auction Sales Diamond Trading Standard, now extended to provide assurance as to the provenance of polished diamonds.
Finally, all diamonds offered for sale on the platform must undergo a comprehensive three-level screening process to identify synthetic and/or treated polished diamonds.
These requirements and conditions will enable buyers to bid on these stones with confidence, De Beers said.
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.”
He added, “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.”
– News Source : gjepc.org
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and TJM Media Pvt Ltd. is not responsible for any errors in the same.
