HB Ecosystem
In our closed-loop ecosystem, we follow each diamond’s journey, from the moment it is unearthed at the mine through the entire production process, ultimately arriving with a consumer.
A physical closed-loop
Provenance matters, making lineage crucial to knowing the impact of a diamond.
Therefore, we vertically integrated the supply chain, controlling every aspect, from the moment a diamond is excavated. In this physically closed loop, a diamond never leaves HB’s Mineral Infrastructure during its transformation from rough to polished.
Backed by a digital closed-loop
We developed a proprietary Internet of Things (IoT) device, the HB Capsule, to collect over 3000 verification points, from the discovery of the stone, throughout the production process until it’s ready to go to an end consumer. All this data is immutable and stored on a state-of-the-art HB Ledger created in partnership with Microsoft. By doing so, HB replaces trust with verifiability, which provides a significant advantage to all our stakeholders: mines, governments, and consumers.
A New Pricing Model
HB Antwerp introduced a new business model for diamonds. By shedding light on every step of our supply chain, we’ve created new, meaningful leverage for our miners and the mining communities. For the first time, the country of origin knows how much value they are creating and how much value is staying in the country to help improve the lives of its citizens.
As a result, miners now get paid on the actual polished prices of their diamonds instead of on the estimated rough value.
This pricing mechanism is groundbreaking in the diamond industry and promises to be transformative for mining communities and countries.
A New Standard
In the first two years of operation, the HB model delivered a 40% higher return in royalties to the Botswana government – money that the government can invest in the local communities.
In 2022, H.E. Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Botswana, announced that the HB model should become the standard for how governments deal with their natural resources, stating that Botswana will never go back to the old way of doing things, selling rough diamonds based on speculative prices.
A scalable operation
Our mineral infrastructure, built on data and technology, enables us to scale up our operation, roll it out in any country, or apply it to other natural resources.
To involve local communities, we launched the HB Academy and the HB Innovation Lab to train local talent. We developed specific training programs with both initiatives leading to meaningful career opportunities in one of the HB group entities.