Colin Orr-Ewing, patient boss of slow-burning exploration company River Diamonds and former colleague of maverick oilman Paul Bristol, is looking forward to developing the strategic relationship he has forged with Alan Bond, the English-born Australian tycoon whose team won the 1983 Americas Cup yacht race but who later went to prison for art fraud and removing �500 million from his quoted company. AIM-quoted River Diamonds has paid �2.2 million for 4.8 per cent of Bond’s present private venture, southern Africa-focused Lesotho Diamonds.

‘At least he served his time’, reflects Orr-Ewing. ‘Lots of people should be in jail who have not’.

Negotiations with Bond took some time but Orr-Ewing was excited about Lesotho Diamonds’ 93 per cent of the Kao diamond pipe, which has a claimed 10.2 million carats. Whether Bond – once a big figure in Australia’s resources, brewing and media industries who tangled unsuccessfully with the likes of Kerry Packer and Tiny Rowland – sees the River Diamonds deal as a prelude to a reversal onto AIM remains to be seen.