Gareth Penny finally came right out and said what we’ve all known for some time now — with just a 40% market share, De Beers is not going to carry on giving BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Alrosa a free ride with its global generic advertising campaign (’A diamond is forever’).

Penny bluntly told the third rough diamond conference now under way in Israel that the global diamond industry should quit asking the question, ‘what is De Beers going to do for the industry?’ He made it clear that the only thing De Beers was willing to do for the industry in general was to join in with its contribution to a collective campaign that had everyone in the industry putting in a contribution.

What surprised everyone was Alrosa president Sergey Vybornov reassuring the global industry, worrying about continuity of supply, that Alrosa had some $109 billion worth of proven diamond reserves that represented up to 40 years of production. There are very good chances that Alrosa’s enhanced exploration program will turn up more reserves.

Overall though, it is now clear that the diamond industry has been unceremoniously dumped into the real world where nothing comes free. Let’s see what the diamond industry does. I don’t know. There are some really smart people who know what future will bring and are willing to act now to meet any challenges that might come up. But these seem to be a minority. Most people don’t look beyond their noses.

Hope the visionaries prevail.