DeBeers to sell Cullinan and Kimberly Mines!

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_...90009?cid=1222
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx...ews__business/

Interesting! They say that it is because they would want to concentrate
on more core issues based on their new marketing strategy. The company
is changing it's outlook quite considerably. Entering into retail
markets, marketing directly to the public, changing it's line of
sight-holders to increase their involvement in promoting the industry
rather than just trading. Now they are selling their oldest mines. This
means that they are gathering capital to unleash something. I am eager
to see what they come up with next?

Ravi K.
http://www.gemsutra.com

Interesting! They say that it is because they would want to concentrate
on more core issues based on their new marketing strategy. The company
is changing it's outlook quite considerably. Entering into retail
markets, marketing directly to the public, changing it's line of
sight-holders to increase their involvement in promoting the industry
rather than just trading. Now they are selling their oldest mines. This
means that they are gathering capital to unleash something. I am eager
to see what they come up with next?

It could mean that, it could mean anything though....It could mean
strategic repositioning.

I suppose nobody wants to hear this, but it is the "elephant in the
living room".

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...ic=&topic_set=

Despite what the ad slogan says, nothing lasts forever.
There are many technical and industrial applications for diamond, and
strong well-funded driving forces for its synthesis.
But it will have a fallout-
Surely no one believes the amounts of perfect, good color, cobbed
amethyst, citrine, and ametrine "rough" that have appeared in recent
years. (Always in cobbed irregular shapes with no crystal tips or
faces). Does anyone think for a minute that the perfect siberian
amethysts one sees on junk outlets like the Home Shopping Channel ever
came out of the ground?
If diamond ablation-resistant missile windows and semiconductor
substrates are ever made colorless, you know what's going to happen.

I would not be surprised if DeBeers sees a Color G iceberg on the
horizon, and is carefully building a lifeboat. The band has not
warmed up yet, perhaps.

There will always be a core of consumers who care about authenticity,
but people are going to have to fight over them.

In my custom cutting, I have seen some discouraging trends in the last
few years:

"It has to be pink".
"OK, you have have a nice bubble gum pink tourmaline for $125 a carat"
"What's 'tourmaline'?-I never heard of it."
"You can have this Morganite for $85 a carat"
"Yeahbut...what's that BRIGHT ONE over there??"
"That's a CZ".
"That's exactly what I was looking for!"

Form over substance! : -(