Burgundy makes first purchase of third-party rough diamonds

Burgundy Diamond Mines Limited based in Australia has announced that it has made its first purchase of third-party rough diamonds as part of its development towards downstream diamond marketing activities.
Burgundy recently acquired the capability to cut and polish Fancy Colour diamonds in a secure purpose-built facility in Perth, Western Australia. This will allow for the in-house creation of Fancy Colour polished product from its planned operations at the Ellendale Diamond Project as well as from other potential Burgundy operations, such as the Naujaat Project in Nunavut, Canada.
A key part of the strategy is to augment in-house production by the purchase of Fancy Colour rough diamonds from selected global diamond producers. Polished diamond products will be branded under a dedicated and exclusive Fancy Colour brand owned by Burgundy, and sold through several select channels to market currently under development by the Company.
As a first step in this process, Burgundy was invited recently by Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Ltd, owners of the Ekati Diamond Mine in Northwest Territories, Canada, to participate in an auction of Fancy diamonds. Burgundy was successful in bidding on a carefully targeted small number of large Fancy Vivid and Fancy Intense yellow diamonds which are a unique product from the Misery Pipe, one of Arctic’s key operating mines. These rough diamonds, with a value of some $1 mn, will now be shipped to Perth and will be cut and polished into Burgundy’s first branded diamond product.
Burgundy Managing Director and CEO Peter Ravenscroft said: “We believe there is significant upside value potential in our downstream strategy. We look forward to being able to expand rapidly, and are already sourcing third-party stones to cut and polish into a range of carefully branded Fancy Colour diamonds”.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished