Sudbury diamond polisher sparkles: Crossworks Manufacturing is the largest cutting and polishing manufacturer in North America.

• Author: Larmour, Adelle

Would you believe that one of the largest diamond cutting and polishing facilities in North America is in Sudbury?

While consumers view the stunning array of diamonds in the jewelry display cases, Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., a cutting and polishing manufacturer headquartered in Vancouver, is busy working behind the scenes.

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This unassuming, low-profile Sudbury facility prefers to fly under the radar because of the nature of its business and the millions of dollars of product with which it deals. Thirty of its 32 employees in Sudbury came from Vietnam and have a minimum of 10 years experience, further emphasizing the value of the product and the importance of accuracy.

Crossworks' two Canadian cutting and polishing factories survived the global financial crisis that left other diamond manufacturers bankrupt. It now has the only cutting and polishing game in the country.

"We're a lean, mean fighting machine," said Dylan Dix, Crossworks' marketing director. "We built all this during one of the worst downturns since the Great Depression."

The company opened its Yellow-knife facility in the Northwest Territories in 2008 in response to the commissioning of De Beers Canada's Snap Lake Mine. A few months later, it received the contract for the Victor Mine diamonds in Attawapiskat, resulting in the startup of the Sudbury facility in August 2009.

During the recession, its Sudbury operation doubled its initial space in less than a year to accommodate automated polishing equipment. As well, its facility touts some of the world's leading technology for cutting diamonds.

Named after the process of cross-working in which the first eight primary facets (faces) are placed on a diamond, the 50-year company is part of the HRA group of companies with its roots stemming from the SunDiamond Group in Antwerp, Belgium.

HRA has been in Canada since 1982, but opened its first manufacturing facility in 2000 in Vancouver, B.C.

Crossworks' ability to survive and grow is partly due to the fact that it cuts and polishes made-in-Ontario diamonds, a prominent selling feature that is gaining popularity. The diamonds from Northern Ontario's Victor Mine are exceptionally high-quality gemstones. Marketed as a Canadian treasure, Dix describes them as diamonds of the finest quality and most sought after in the world.

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He likens the diamonds to cattle that only produce cream. There may not be many carats per, tonne, but the quality...