Rio Tinto CEO loves diamonds The company is considering an expansion of a gem mine in northwestern Canada as it forecasts growing demand.
Author: Bloomberg News Rio Tinto Group, which last year abandoned plans to sell its diamond unit, is considering an expansion of a gem mine in northwestern Canada as it forecasts growing demand.
“I love diamonds,” Chief Executive Officer Sam Walsh said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Beijing. “I think it’s a seriously good business and as you go forward the opportunities for that are seriously good. It’s not an asset that I would like to divest of, no. It’s an asset that I would like to nurture.”
The middle class in China and India, the world’s fastest- growing jewelry market, may double by 2015 compared with 2010, according to WWW International Diamond Consultants Ltd. Global demand will probably rise 4 percent to 4.5 percent this year with U.S. consumption increasing as much as 6 percent, according to De Beers, the biggest producer.