Diamond Rose and Pnina Feldman

Australian Minerals and Energy Annual Review 1997/1998

Pnina Feldman’s ability to raise eleven children and spend a decade as principal of Yeshiva Girls School hints at an energy level a good deal higher than some of the men decorating the boards of major resource companies.

Resources exploring would be a dull business without its many flamboyant players, who cock a snoot at convention as they roll the dice in search of riches. Most of these characters are men, but now there is a women who can stake a claim to being the most flamboyant of all.

Fifty-two year-old Pnina Feldman cheerfully describes herself as a: “housewife and a mother of 11 children” when she floated her Diamond Rose NL on the stock exchange in April last year. The 20 cent shares shot up to $1.75 in early trading. It that was not enough to attract attention, the chairperson rocked up at the Sydney stock exchange flanked by six rabbis, and sporting a platinum wig.

Pnina is almost literally following in the steps of younger brother Joe Gutnick, one of the most indefatigable gold miners and diamond hunters in Australia.

Diamond Rose, named after their mother who was killed in a car accident six years ago, owns 17 tenements at locations including Walgidee Hills in East Kimberley. The area hosts what is arguably the largest known diamond-bearing lamproite pipe in the world. A number of hopefuls, including Gutnick’s Great Central Mines, have already scoured Walgidee with minimal success. Some hard headed observers believe Diamond Rose might do better – in diamonds, gold, base metals or, more likely, in gemstones.

It is unfortunate that tabloid journalists gave the company a whacky name because of its alleged search for the breastplate containing 12 Hosen gemstones worn by the High Priest in the Temple of Jerusalem 3000 years ago – an item unlikely to turn up in the Western Australian desert. As the prospectus made clear, Diamond Rose is simply searching for precious and semi-precious gemstones with similar attributes to the ancient Hosen stones which symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel. The Bible says these stones include sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate and amethyst. According to Talmudic sources the holy breastplate will be reconstructed again at the time of the Messianic era, “at which point all the righteous dead will be reborn.”

For investors who do not wish to wait that long, Pnina Feldman says she has discovered five of the stones required, including green chrome jade-like objects which she has dubbed, and trademarked, pittados. It was this discovery which got her in a spot of bother. She called a press conference at her Bondi Junction office to announce that Diamond Rose had sold a kilo of the rocks to American consumers for US$2 million, utilizing the home-shopping channel QVC. Feldman gloated that Diamond Rose had 119,000 tonnes of the stuff and, after some back-of-the envelope calculations declared to be worth $35 billion. In fact she had mislaid a zero and the notional number – by no means supposed to be a serious forecast anyway – was $350 billion. The stock exchange surveillance department got most huffy about this and formally queried the company.

The AFX is not always consistent in hauling companies over the coals over supposed transgressions. Diamond Rose is not a stock that would attract widows and orphans. Pnina Feldman owns more than half of the shares herself – a circumstance that briefly rocketed her into the BRW rich list with a $435 million paper fortune in 1997, even though the AFX insisted 71 million shares of her vendor shares be held effectively in escrow for two years after the listing. The next biggest shareholder is one George Soros who is believed to own in excess of 10 per cent, as well as directly backing the company with a $4 million buy-in of certain leases. Most of the other shareholders are nominee companies giving addresses in places like Argentina, Uruguay, Israel and Hong Kong. Many of these came on board late last year when Diamond Rose successfully placed $21 million worth of stock at $1.20 a piece through US brokers Refco Securities.

Pnina, like brother Joe, enjoys a strong following among the New York Jewish community, not only for business acumen, but because of the religious devoutness of the family.

Feldman briefly studied law at Melbourne University before spending three years at a Jewish teachers training college in London. On her way back to Australia, she met her husband to be Rabbi Pinchus and, after a period in Israel, they returned to take up positions in Sydney’s Yeshiva community.

Pnina Feldman’s ability to raise eleven children and spend a decade as principal of Yeshiva Girls School hints at an energy level a good deal higher than some of the men decorating the boards of major resource companies. She somehow found the time to begin a business career a few years ago in the jewellery and mining industry, boasting some tenacity in sourcing and developing resource projects – the bulk of which were injected into Diamond Rose at the time of the float.

In common with most resource companies, and all junior exploration chips, Diamond Rose shares have tumbled over the past year. They now change hands at around 44 cents.

The company needs a win to complement the pittado prospect. Pnina Feldman says she operates on the four “M’s” principal – Money, Management, Mining and Mazel, which is Hebrew for good luck.