De Beers’ Diamond Trading Company announced that 72 sightholders have qualified for the next three-year contract period—a slight increase from the current list of 71 sightholders.
The DTC did not make any of the names public, and does not plan to until March. Mahiar Borhanjoo, DTC executive director for sales and client services, told JCK that’s because the list is provisional, and the profiles still have to be reviewed by a third party auditor.
Among the New York companies said to be on the list: Hasenfeld-Stein, which lost its sight in 2008. The company declined comment to JCK.
The new roster also shows the DTC shifting its focus towards producing countries.
In the most notable change, the current roster of 16 DTC Botswana sightholders has been upped to 21. Namibia also got three new sightholders, for a total of 13, and Canada added a new sightholder, for a total of two. South Africa appears to have lost three sightholders, so it now has 10.
DTC London still has the most sightholders, with 66. The company plans to give out 112 allocations total.
“We are committed to beneficiation,” Borhanjoo says. “But the way we look at it is: How much do we have available, what do people apply for, and what goods can we provide? It’s not focused on how many sightholders we have [in one area].”
At press time, it wasn’t clear how many companies lost their allocation. According to The Times of India, one of the companies that lost sightholder status was a leading Indian exporter, Sanghavi Exports.
The DTC notes that unsuccessful companies can reapply throughout the 2012 to 2015 contract period.
“The companies that made it on the list are some fantastic and very strong businesses,” Borhanjoo says. “That doesn’t mean that we have all the strong businesses out there. It all depends of availability. But most certainly we have a fantastic group of diamantaires.”
Borhanjoo called the selection process “stringent, open, and transparent.”
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