Diamond Market: Featuring Primer on Sanctions With Paul Zimnisky
Join George Read, along with Nathan Williams from Minespider and Robert Wake-Walker from WWW International Diamond Consultants, for a discussion on the diamond market. The discussion will start with a primer conversation with Paul Zimnisky, a diamond analyst, on the impact of Russian sanctions.
SVP, Corporate Development at Star Diamond Corporation
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.
Independent Diamond Analyst at Paul Zimnisky Diamond Analytics
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.
Diamond and Gemstone Industry Consultant at WWW International Diamond Consultants
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.
Replay transcript excerpt
Awesome. Well, good morning or good afternoon, depending on where in the world you're logging in from today, or good evening, even some people on the panel. Thanks so much for joining us for today's event on the Diamond Market, featuring Nathan Williams, CEO of MindSpider, Diamond and Gemstone industry consultant, Robert Wakewalker, and George Reed of Star Diamond. Before that portion of today's event begins, we're going to be starting off with a primer on diamond sanctions in Russia, Diamond expert Paul Zaniski. Paul, great to be here with you. Thanks for having me. Awesome. So a couple of just really brief questions to lead off. But I'd love to start, as the primer says, to tell us about how Russian sanctions have impacted the market for diamonds globally. Yeah, so I guess just to set the stage and provide you with the backdrop. So shortly after the invasion, probably within just a few weeks, the US implemented 3 rounds of sanctions on Russian diamonds and the primary Russian diamond miner, Alrosa. So that was in early 2022. And that was kind of the first big catalyst as it relates to this. The big caveat to understand is there's a lot of nuance around this. These sanctions are quite complicated. And as it pertained to those early US sanctions, it only basically related to diamonds that are directly imported into the US from Russia. And that technically excluded diamonds that are produced in Russia but cut and polished outside of Russia. And those goods could still be imported into the US. And the technical term they use is transformed. So if those Russian diamonds were transformed from rough diamonds to polished diamonds, and that transformation took place outside of Russia, technically they could still be imported into the US. That said, around that same time, I ...
