De Beers is no longer one of the sole traders of diamonds, and with BRC Diamond and Diamond Core merging, there’s even more competition in the market.

Bruce Whitfield:
When you think diamonds you probably think they are a girl's best friend and you also probably think De Beers because diamonds have intrinsically been related with De Beers just for generations and one certainly gets the impression though that the diamond sector is beginning to shift and that there are new players coming in, new exploration companies, and one of those or maybe two of those is BRC Diamonds and of course Diamond Core.

Now the news today that BRC Diamond and Diamond Core are merging and they are going to be called BRC Diamond Core in the new entity and the chief executive is Mike de Wit. Mike is my assessment accurate that there appears to be a lot more non De Beers activity in the diamond world at the moment?

Mike de Wit:
There is certainly a lot more activity in that side and a lot more companies getting involved in the diamond sector moving away from the major.

Bruce Whitfield:
And again lots more exploration companies, lots more activity outside, De Beers doesn't like to be called a monopoly but they certainly have had a very tight hold over the global diamond trade for a very long time.

Mike de Wit:
That’s right they certainly have but I think in the last couple of years people have realised the value of getting into the diamond exploration business and it has resulted in many junior companies getting into the business.

Bruce Whitfield:
Now Diamond Corporation and Diamond Core, the merger, what is the rationale behind there?

Mike de Wit:
It is an interesting question Bruce. We are a fairly small company and a very young company that has been operating in the DRC through a company called Banro Gold. They have managed to acquire a lot of interesting ground for diamond exploration in the DRC and we have done a lot of early exploration work on those properties but we have to move into evaluation stages and for that one requires prospecting plants and advanced equipment and we have looked around and decided well we either do it ourselves or we try and get some expertise in who really know the game and similarly Diamond Core were looking for expanding into other parts of Africa and I think it sounded like a very sensible merger.

Expertise on exploration from our side and expertise on diamond treatment plants on the other side.

Bruce Whitfield:
So certainly the new entity is better suited to actually realise the value of what might be under the ground in those resources which BRC Diamonds has.

Mike de Wit:
I think it certainly will and it certainly will do it a lot faster so we hope with this merger to be able to access to the expertise that Diamond Core have but at the same hand we’d also like to share our exploration expertise both in South Africa with Diamond Core and in the Congo and other areas.

Bruce Whitfield:
Now the DRC is really quite a scary place for many people who remember civil wars and they’ve realised the infrastructure isn't great but the resources under the ground in the DRC are nothing short of remarkable and getting in early I guess is part of that particular trick.

Mike de Wit:
That exactly has been the vision of Banro Gold who got in very early and the licences that they have acquired were done very early on after the introduction of the new mining code which was set up with the World Bank and they have managed to acquire some prime estate in the DRC. From a scary point of view I think it is actually a very interesting country, it is a country that is ready for some serious growth and I think it is the right time to be there.

Bruce Whitfield:
And again, diamonds are a finite resource. I mean you have got to focus on where the untapped resources are in places like the DRC because of the history is where those resources theoretically will lie.

Mike de Wit:
Absolutely there are two reasons really why the DRC is attractive. First of all the central African area is still perhaps one of the pristine areas where one could find very big diamond mines and secondly it's an area that because of the history that it had has seen very little exploration and particularly using modern technology.

Bruce Whitfield:
Mike de Wit very interesting chat there, thank you very much indeed, the chief executive of BRC Diamond Core.