Diamond-miner De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), part of the De Beers group, hopes to provide the industry with the desired impetus to weather the global economic crisis.

At the recent De Beers Shining Light awards ceremony, DBCM MD David Noko reported that the global economic crisis had resulted in declining jewellery sales.

However, he hastened to add that opportunities must be created in times of hardship and that the De Beers Shining Lights awards would go a long way in achieving this.

"The De Beers Shining Lights awards go beyond acknowledging good work within the industry, and one of the core aspects of the awards is to unearth hidden talent to position South Africa as a globally competitive jewellery design and manufacturing hub," said Noko.

He added that the competition was also aimed at ensuring that the beneficiation diamonds mined in Southern Africa took place in the region.

The 2008 De Beers Shining Light awards competition saw a number of innovations that had been absent in previous editions of the competition.

For the first time, the competition included participants from Botswana and Namibia, both significant producers of diamonds. Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also significant diamond producing countries in Southern Africa and Noko said that the competition could be further expanded to include those countries.

Another feature of the 2008 competition is the fact that the entrants were involved in all aspects of the process. In the past, entrants were only required to design jewellery pieces.

This year, in addition to designing jewellery pieces, entrants attended workshops on the diamond-mining process and the effects of the global economic crisis on the diamond industry and were also given guidance on how to market their products.

The entrants were actively involved in the manufacturing process of their jewellery pieces.

The overall South African winner was Bhekithemba Ngema, who designed a ring encrusted with 725 cut diamonds weighing 15,63 ct. The overall Botswana winner was Katja Nilsson, who designed a neckpiece set with 674 diamonds weighing 24,95ct, while the overall Namibian winner was André Canto, who also deigned a neckpiece set with 685 cut diamonds weighing 34,96ct.

The Southern African Shining Light Collection, comprising the winning pieces from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, was on show in the US at a pre-Oscar party to create interest in the diamond industry.

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