The Times reports that Diamond giant De Beers has hired accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to assist with the negotiations of a $1.5 billion loan De Beers borrowed from a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.

PwC will try to convince the banks to refinance the loan by elaborating on De Beers's financial outlook. De Beers Managing Director Gareth Penny hopes to complete the negotiations by the end of the year, as it faces another loan of $1.7 million, which needs to be refinanced by 2012.

De Beers used the funds it borrowed for four major projects, most of which have been completed by now. Unfortunately, De Beers borrowed the funds at the wrong time in the cycle. Since then, De Beers' non-mining costs have been cut in half to $400 million.