SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Nothing says "Canadian diamond" like a stone pulled from the frozen ground of the Northwest Territories, says Sonja Sanders, owner of Jewellery by Sanders in Oshawa, Ont.

Crossworks Manufacturing employee Hung Phan operates the polishing wheel. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Sanders, who was in Yellowknife last week with 19 other independent jewellers from across the country ­ from B.C. to P.E.I. ­ has been running radio ads in her city promoting NWT diamonds for four years now.

As far as her customers are concerned, Canadian diamonds are NWT diamonds, she said, and reality TV shows like Ice Road Truckers aren't needed to tell them that.

"They want to know how many mines there are here, and they want to be educated," said Sanders, while touring Yellowknife's sole remaining cutting and polishing plant, Crossworks Manufacturing, on Thursday. "They're really proud to buy a Canadian diamond as opposed to something from overseas.

"The Northwest Territories has really done a superb job in putting their name out there, and we're the other side of the country."

As for diamonds from her home province, those extracted from the two-year-old Victor Mine outside of Sudbury, her customers have only heard rumours, or that the mine is just getting started, she said.

Not every jeweller present believed NWT diamonds automatically win out over those mined from Ontario in terms of glamour and star power but Sherry Cardiff, who has owned Richard's Jewellery in Camrose, Alta. with her husband for the last 21 years, agrees that NWT diamonds, which have been produced for more than a decade, are more on the minds of her customers.

"We've talked to people about the Ontario diamonds and they seem to be more interested in the Northwest Territories right now," said Cardiff. "I think they know more about it, so it's more popular." She added quite a few people in Camrose fly up to NWT mines for work.

Cardiff said she is vaguely aware of the troubles the NWT has experienced in keeping its secondary cutting and polishing industry afloat, but as far as she could tell, the territory's diamond industry as a whole has done well.

"I don't see that they're doing anything that is too much wrong.," she said. "I think they're trying to cover all the bases and they're taking care of the people, the diamonds, the environment."

The jewellers ­ all members of the diamond buying Canadian Jewellery Group -- were all awaiting their turn at Crossworks' polishing wheel where they would be filmed polishing an NWT-produced diamond so they can take the video program back and display it at their stores.

Dylan Dix, worldwide marketing director for HRA Investments Ltd., the parent company of the Crossworks plant as well as the plant in Sudbury, said the trip to Yellowknife and Diavik by retailers was the first of its kind, and he hopes there will be more to follow in the future.

"This is the first trip I've ever done of this magnitude any where in Canada, so the NWT is my first choice," he said.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.