DTC Sightholder Sales is a system of diamond supply which contributes to authorized and ethical trade of mined diamonds. Diamond Trading Company (DTC) was a trademark being used by the De Beers group to represent their distribution and sales division. Now, it is known as De Beers Global Sightholder Sales.
De Beers Group (DBGSS) is a large-scale organization, a diamond powerhouse that controls nearly 35% of the world’s rough diamond production, diamond mining, exploration, trading, and industrial diamond manufacturing with operations in over 30 countries. De Beers maintains a list of authorized bulk buyers of raw diamonds – better known as DTC Sightholder List. Hence, a selected group of companies that buy raw diamonds from the De Beers group are called Sightholders.
De Beers sells the diamonds either by its Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) process or at organized auctions. DTC Sightholders are able to choose and purchase rough diamonds only through these selling events which are often held in Botswana, Namibia or South Africa every five weeks. Only DTC Sightholders are invited to these events to touch and physically inspect the diamonds before buying in bulk.
De Beers always sells the majority of its diamonds (nearly 90%) to the contracted Sightholders or Sights – who are the world’s top diamantaires. The GSS customer community includes prominent exporters of diamonds, manufacturers, niche specialists, etc. who generally wholesale and distribute the rough diamonds further down in the international markets for processing.
The raw diamonds are mined by De Beers’s owned operations & their joint ventures, and are considered free of conflict to meet Responsible Jewellery Council’s Code of Practices Certification.
As a retail customer, you can easily trace the source of a diamond if the dealing outlet shows their association with any De Beers (DTC) Sightholder or Accredited Buyer. The entire customer directory of De Beers group can also be viewed on their official website. However, it is unlikely that you would find your local diamond dealer’s name on this list because it only shows large-scale businesses of raw diamonds, from which your local outlet may have sourced its diamonds. This directory consists of detailed information like business type, product range overview, services provided, office contacts & phone numbers of all the Sightholders across the world who are recognized by the De Beers Group.
Therefore, if you see a DTC Sightholder logo in an advertisement or at an outlet, you would know about their association with De Beers’s authentic raw diamonds.
The list of Sightholders is updated from time to time with a contract for every supplier of choice – invited, confirmed and announced by De Beers for the public view. Nonetheless, DTC Sightholders are the customers of De Beers who are required to adhere to the Best Practice Principles (BPPs) of De Beers and meet their Contract Proposal Questionnaire (CPQ) in order to qualify.