My friend of close on 20 years, Nirupa Bhatt, has confirmed that she is, indeed leaving Rio Tinto. Nirupa joined the then Argyle Diamonds in 1989, a couple of years after we had launched Solitaire International. She has achieved something remarkable. Beginning as an unknown outsider, she walked the beat in Mumbai’s diamond district of Opera House, meeting people, learning about diamonds, slowly but surely winning confidence and overcoming the inherent prejudices of a male-dominated business.

Above all, Nirupa has come to be trusted by the industry – clients and non-clients alike. The fact is, neither Argyle, nor its successor Rio Tinto, would never have enjoyed the kind of success that it has, without her. She understands the industry and its needs and could always be counted on to do what was good for it in the long term – never being swayed by the prospect of short-term gains. She became ‘one of the guys’. She was invited to industry meetings to discuss problems and issues when no other mining company representative would ever have been allowed anywhere near.

What is also a fact is that neither Argyle nor Rio has ever had an India-specific team that really understood India the way De Beers does. It doesn’t have one now. Nirupa was all they had. Which is probably why I, along with much of the rest of the industry, received a strange letter stating that Rio’s ‘India office remains operational’ and reaffirming Rio’s ‘commitment to India’.

She says she’s ‘taking a break’ and will consider what to do next in a while. Needless to say, half the industry is falling over itself making her offers. She doesn’t seem in a hurry to jump into anything right away. She has an unbelievable amount of goodwill.

Her going is a body blow to Rio.