Diamond Market: Featuring Primer on Sanctions With Paul Zimnisky

Mr. Read is a diamond exploration geologist with over 39 years of international experience. After graduating in geology and geochemistry from the University of Cape Town (BSc. Hons., 1983), Mr. Read joined De Beers in South Africa. During his 12 years with De Beers, he worked on a wide spectrum of diamond exploration projects in Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, Mali and Tanzania), in addition to Canada and Brazil. Mr. Read came to Canada as a Landed Immigrant in early 1997 and worked as a consultant for several companies in Alberta, NWT, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, in addition to projects in Greenland and Brazil. Mr. Read commenced with Star Diamond Corporation in late 2003 and since that time has led the team responsible for the exploration and evaluation of the Fort a la Corne kimberlites. During his career of almost four decades, he has encountered and solved many of the diverse problems associated with diamond exploration and evaluation programs. Mr. Read is a Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada and a Professional Geoscientist in the Provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Mr. Read became a citizen of Canada in September 2005.

Paul Zimnisky Diamond Analytics is an independent data analysis and consulting proprietorship specializing in the global diamond industry and related fundamentals. The principal, Paul Zimnisky, CFA, is recognized as a leading analyst in the industry. His work is used globally by financial institutions, public and private corporations, consultancies, governments, agencies and universities.

Minespider is an enterprise-ready platform for supply chain transparency. We help companies prove the origins and responsibility of their products by collecting ESG and compliance information in digital product passports that attach to products with a simple QR code.

A fluent Russian speaker, Wake-Walker was raised in Moscow, where has father, Richard Wake-Walker, set up De Beers’ first office in the Russian capital shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. A lawyer by profession, Robert Wake-Walker returned to the diamond industry in 2022 at WWW International Diamond Consultants in London.