Leviev and De Beers -- Together Again

There is a lot of chatter about the DTC’s list of Namibian sightholders … One of the more interesting names on the list is LLD,  Lev Leviev’s company.

Leviev, of course, is the man who the media likes to say "broke the De Beers cartel." Whether that is true or not (he certainly played a role, but probably deserves more credit for setting the "beneficiation" trend in motion), he has definitely had an up and down relationship with De Beers. He once was a sightholder, but his sight was taken away when he started making deals for his own rough supplies. Now he is being supplied by the DTC again, in Namiba, at least. Certainly an interesting turn of events. Some think this shows that the Namibian government is in charge of the process, rather than the DTC.

It’s also interesting to see who didn’t get a sight. 18 companies applied; only 11 got allocations. Schachter and Namdar, whose factory was just written up in the Nambian press, is not on the list; neither, it seems, are any Indian companies. 

Charles Wyndham has (typically acidic) thoughts about the new list here.

UPDATE: Another interesting company getting a Nambian sight: Tiffany, which just confirmed to me they are the "majority partner" in Laurelton-Reign, a company on the list.