Luxe Jewellery

The approach led to a legal tussle with the territorial government, which uses a polar bear image as its trademark, that is still not fully resolved, says Sirius president Stephen Ben-Oliel. But Mr. Ben-Oliel says he hopes the matter will be settled in the new year and Sirius will then sign on to the territory’s diamond certification program. In the meantime, Sirius is busy. This month, it signed an agreement with a 118-store retailer in Japan. About half of Sirius’s sales, Mr. Ben-Oliel estimates, now come from the United States. Like others in the Canadian industry, Mr. Ben-Oliel is reluctant to draw any link between the strong and growing demand for Canadian diamonds and heightened consumer awareness about so-called blood or conflict diamonds   gems typically from Africa used to buy weapons or otherwise fuel conflict in countries such as Angola or Sierra Leone. Earlier this month, 52 countries, including Canada, adopted a certification program to help stop the sale of conflict diamonds. Under the agreement, known as the Kimberley Process after the town in South Africa where it began in 2000, diamonds must be accompanied by certificates that detail where rough diamonds came from. The program is to take effect in January. Officials say about 4 per cent of mined diamonds come from areas of conflict, although human rights groups say the total is likely higher. When the Canadian industry this month unveiled a voluntary code of conduct designed to ensure that diamonds promoted as Canadian are indeed mined in Canada, those involved took pains to emphasize the code was about truth in advertising   not about blood diamonds. In what could be seen as typically Canadian style, the idea is to emphasize what’s nice about Canadian gems   and not what’s bad about the rest. “I just say this diamond, from source to sale, has a provenance guarantee like no other diamond in the world,” Mr. Ben-Oliel says. As branding gathers momentum in the diamond world, there is no clear-cut agreement on the best way to go about it. Unlike other luxury goods   a watch, say, or a car or even luggage   diamonds are small and to some degree anonymous. The well-trained eye can spot a fake or flaw, but most consumers can’t. Experts say branding will come through special or unique cuts, value-added items such as certification or the cachet of a particular retailer. When the Diavik Diamond Project   only 30 kilometres from Ekati   gears up for production, expected in the first half of 2003, it has no intention of branding its own diamonds. Diavik will be relying on the clout, history and sterling reputation of New York jeweller Tiffany & Co. Tiffany is a minority shareholder of Toronto-based Aber Diamond Corp., which through a subsidiary controls 40 per cent of Diavik. The majority 60-per-cent stake is owned by Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto PLC of London. Tiffany has agreed to purchase a minimum of $50-million a year in diamonds from Aber when Diavik starts producing, and is currently building a $3-million sorting and cutting factory in Yellowknife.