Fook and Hong Kong Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, the world's largest listed jeweller, is considering acquiring stakes in diamond mines to secure long-term supply of the gems as demand on the mainland for the precious stone grows.
Several mines around the world had asked Chow Tai Fook to invest, and the company had looked at some Canadian ones, said executive director Adrian Cheng Chi-kong.
The jeweller has diamond processing and cutting factories and does not own any mines.
"There are a lot of opportunities, but it is not very easy because it is always in a foreign country, somewhere in Africa or Botswana, or anywhere around the world," Cheng said about the mines. "We need to measure the political risks, economic risks, deployment of staff - it's not an easy decision."