TORONTO (Commodity Online): The Diamond Bourse of Canada has announced that it will be fully operational by the end of this month. Since the official opening of Canada's first diamond exchange in January, its management and staff have been hard at work preparing a set of services that will be offered to members from the bourse's convenient downtown Toronto location.

The new bourse's president, Bhushan Vora, said that the trading floor will not only provide a physical space in which members can deal in diamonds, but it also will offer a range of valuable business facilities.

"Apart from offering secretarial and other technical services, we want the bourse floor to be a source of education, where members can attend seminars and lectures about diamonds and related areas of interest," he said.

Taking the lead from several of the veteran diamond exchanges, Mr. Vora said that a technological centre is situated on the bourse's trading floor. It features advanced systems provided by several of the world's diamond equipment providers. Sarin Technologies has donated a Diamension proportion and cut grading machine and a Colibri colour grading machine.

For its part De Beers has donated a Diamond Sure machine for indicating synthetic and HPHT trade diamonds. HRD Antwerp NV has provided a D Screen machine to detect synthetic and HPHT diamonds and a gemmological microscope.

A diamond grading certificate window has already begun operating at the bourse. It serves as a drop-off point where members can submit diamonds for certification and receive same-day diamond grading services.

It is anticipated that the Custom Bonded Warehouse will be open and ready for business during the third week of March. This is a first of its kind in North America, where members can inspect their goods or bring a customer to preview goods before clearing them through customs.