Diamond Trading Company

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Diamond Trading Company
Type
Founded
Headquarters	London, England
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Varda Shine, Managing Director
Industry	Sale of rough (uncut) diamonds
Products	Diamonds
Services	Diamond Sales
Parent	De Beers
Website	www.dtc.com

The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) is a London-based subsidiary of the De Beers Group, specializing in the sale and marketing of rough (uncut) diamonds. The company forms an essential part of De Beers' sales mechanism, maintaining an exclusive list of sightholders to which it sells all De Beers gem-grade diamonds coming to the market in a limited number of sales per year. Nicky Oppenheimer is chairman of DTC.

DTC receives uncut diamonds from all of De Beers' mines around southern Africa, as well as some production from Alrosa in Russia. The diamonds are then sorted into over 16,000 categories, according to size, color, clarity, carat and quality (amount of inclusions). They are then combined into lots for sale to sightholders. Sightholders are invited to DTC's London offices ten times per year and are given the opportunity to purchase lots of diamonds at prices set by DTC. According to a January 13, 2004 DTC media release ([1]), there are 84 sightholders, and three additional companies authorized to purchase diamonds from DTC for industrial use. In 2004, DTC's sales were $5.7 billion, an increase of 3.2% over the previous year.

DTC also operates De Beers' famous diamond marketing campaigns to consumers.