Rio Tinto this week confirmed its commitment to support innovation as a driver of growth in the ‎Chinese diamond industry and the important role that design will play in developing new ‎categories for diamond jewelry consumption. ‎

At a press conference in Hong Kong, Rio Tinto, as headline partner in the Jewellery News Asia ‎‎(JNA) awards, also acknowledged the accelerating pace of change in the Chinese diamond ‎jewelry market which is an important market for the smaller, affordable diamonds from its Argyle ‎diamond mine in Australia. ‎

According to Rita Maltez, the manager of Rio Tinto Diamonds' greater China representative office, ‎"In the three years since establishing our presence on the ground in Hong Kong we have seen ‎tremendous changes in the market best demonstrated by the growth in diamond fashion jewelry. ‎To this end the JNA Awards are very timely and we are delighted to be participating again this ‎year.” ‎

Rio Tinto established its sales and marketing representative office in Hong Kong in March 2010 ‎in recognition of the growing importance of the Chinese diamond jewelry market. Currently the ‎company is working with a range of Chinese jewelry designers to create jewelry collections ‎utilizing Argyle diamonds. ‎