HB Antwerp is a

diamond cutting Diamond cutting is the practice of shaping a diamond from a rough stone into a faceted gem. Cutting diamonds requires specialized knowledge, tools, equipment, and techniques because of its extreme difficulty. The first guild of diamond cutters and ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

company based in

Antwerp, Belgium Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. It was founded in 2020 by Shai de Toledo, Rafael Papismedov, and Oded Mansori.

History

HB Antwerp purchases rough diamonds from the Karowe mine in Botswana through a deal with Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corporation and works in partnership with the Botswana government. In 2020, HB Antwerp partnered with Lucara and

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...

to work on several large stones, including the " Sewelo" diamond, the "Sethunya", a 549-carat diamond, and a 1,175-carat rough diamond, all discovered in the Karowe mine in Botswana. In August 2020, they entered an agreement to purchase all of Lucara’s large stones (10.8 carats and up) and, in 2022, they signed a ten-year contract. The contract was terminated in October 2023. In 2022, the company partnered with Microsoft to verify and track mined gems; all data about their trajectory is stored on a

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

. Later that year it partnered with engineering company Comate to devise mini safes in which diamonds are stored and tracked. In September 2022, during the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

, Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi referred to the government's arrangement with the HB Antwerp as a model for other African countries. He also pointed to the agreement during his negotiations with diamond corporation

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

, threatening to end the partnership if new terms weren't agreed upon. In March 2023, Masisi announced that Botswana would acquire a 24% stake in HB Antwerp. The company established Signum, a rough diamond brand which sells directly to the public and sold 12 Non-fungible token diamonds in January 2022. HB Antwerp opened HB Botswana, a new cutting and polishing facility in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2023.

References

{{reflist Diamond cutting Diamond industry in Belgium 2020 establishments in Belgium Mining in Botswana Companies based in Antwerp