Based in Antwerp & Africa
OUR TEAM
Ilana Brandwain
Antwerp, Belgium
Ilana is the founder of Noble Fine Jewellery.
Having been involved with the diamond industry for over five years and a part of a third-generation diamond business, she regularly works with clients around the world looking to source and create their own Zimmi piece.
Alpha Marrah
Liberia
Alpha Marrah grew up along the border of Zimmi and Kongo, and is a second generation miner with international licences for both mining and export.
Living and working directly with the teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Alpha established Konja Mining in 2014 as a co-operative organisation bringing together miners and agriculturists along the Mano river belt, in order to help them gain the maximum benefit from their product and hard work.
Max Brandwain
Sierra Leone
Originally from Antwerp, Belgium, Max has been living in Sierra Leone for 16 years as a licensed diamond miner and buyer.
Max is also the founder and owner of Mercury International, Sierra Leone’s National Lottery company and Founder of The Mercury Charitable Foundation – the largest private charity in Sierra Leone.
One of the Foundations recent projects saw the building of 80 school extensions, and Mercury is committed to ongoing support of the government of Sierra Leone in their development of the country through education and ensuring a brighter future for all.
ABOUT US
In the heart of the rainforest region of Sierra Leone where the Mano river marks the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia, lie two small communities: Zimmi and Kongo.
Here, for the past 16 years, we have been working with the people to mine for the most sought-after yellow diamonds: The Zimmi Diamond.
Using only the most traditional and sustainable mining methods to sift through the gravel, our miners reveal some of the world’s rarest yellow diamonds, which are then looked after by our small, independent teams, thus ensuring we can share every part of the diamond’s journey from the mine to the moment our team of polishers and designers in Antwerp receive them and our clients finally get to wear them.
Being an integral part of the Zimmi and Kongo communities, we take pride in the work and support that we bring to the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Through our charitable foundations, we empower our miners to build their businesses by providing them with the tools and transport they need, and we also invest in schools and scholarships to ensure the next generation of miners are also able to grow and flourish.
Our mines in Zimmi have been leased to our family for the past 20 years and are managed directly by our teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia to ensure all our diamonds are conflict-free and entirely traceable back through its origin.
Using the most traditional methods of excavation, the mining of our Zimmi diamonds uses non-invasive techniques to ensure the environment and landscape is kept intact for future generations.
By utilizing the Alluvial method of mining, most of our excavation is done by hand by individual excavators who wash the gravel coming from the riverbeds found at the Mano rivers delta.
Using these simple tools and small teams of individual miners, we ensure our small output approach does not have a negative effect on the environment and the individual miners are able to benefit directly.
All our diamonds are conflict-free with traceable origins. We adhere to the internationally-renowned Kimberley Process, ensuring that exploitation plays no part in our diamonds and jewellery.