Idex Online reports that Crossworks Manufacturing has opened a diamond polishing plant in Sudbury, Ontario. Crossworks is part of the HRA Group, a DTC Sightholder. In 2008, the company was awarded the Ontario tender for 10% of the unaggregated rough diamonds from the Victor Diamond Mine operated by De Beers.



The factory will polish rough diamonds recovered at the Victor Mine which is located in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. Twenty-seven diamond polishers will be employed at the new plant.



HRA now operates three diamond polishing plants in Canada, in Vancouver, Yellowknife and Sudbury. Founded in Vancouver in 1982, the HRA Group is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of branded Canadian diamonds.

The development of local diamond polishing facilities stems from an agreement between the government of the Province of Ontario and De Beers aimed at providing greater beneficiation from locally mined diamonds for the indigenous population.



Idex Online quotes Dylan Dix, marketing director of HRA: “These diamonds offer an amazing opportunity for Ontario and Canadian retailers to market premiere diamonds that are mined, cut and polished in Ontario.”



Uri Ariel, President of Crossworks and the HRA Group, noted: “The diamonds that originate from the Victor Mine are some of the most spectacular in the world and they will be cut and polished in Ontario. We have a strong history of polishing in Canada and I can promise that our new facility in Sudbury will be an amazing success.”