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Showing posts with label De Beers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label De Beers. Show all posts

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De Beers Helps Employees With HIV & AIDS

Sunday, May 31, 2009 by admin

You might associate mining with certain health risks. However, you might be surprised to know that one of the biggest health issues tackled by the De Beers Group is HIV and AIDS.The majority of De Beers employees work in Africa which is an area that is very heavily affected by AIDS. De Beers recognizes that helping to fight the spread of AIDS helps their employees on a personal level but it also makes sense from a business standpoint.


De Beers divides their HIV/AIDS program into the three parts: saving lives, living with HIV/AIDS and minimizing the economic impact of HIV and AIDS. De Beers offers to its employees education on safer sexual practices and explains exactly what HIV and AIDS is and how it can be prevented. They set up testing and counseling sites at all of their mines. The employees aren’t forced to be tested, but encouraged through a “Know Your Status” program.

De Beers not only provides education to their employees but offers services to employees that do test HIV+ or have AIDS. They offer both the employee and their spouse or life partner medical treatment. They work to minimize the impact the HIV/AIDS has on the employee’s life. They also have strict policies regarding non-discrimination and confidentiality.

De Beers also works hard to control the spread of tuberculosis which can be fatal in someone with HIV or AIDS.

The programs run by De Beers will help to ensure that HIV/AIDS does not have weaken the economic status of the region. More importantly, it will also help its many employees live better quality lives.

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The De Beers Cartel Controls Diamond Prices

by admin

One of the more interesting aspects of gem grade diamonds is how they are mined, traded and sold. For the most part, the entire process of mining, trading, cutting and polishing diamonds and then selling them to wholesale and retail outlets are tightly controlled. The main player in the Diamond industry is De Beers. The De Beers company has set up a strong diamond cartel to sell gem grade diamonds. A cartel is a small group of members that controls a large share of a specific market. In essence, they use their control of a market to raise the prices and control its output.

At one point in history, it is stated that De Beers had control over 80% of the diamond market, today’s estimates are far lower at 40% to 50%, however it is still enough to have strict control over prices and supply. De Beers has control of the mines and sells their gem grade diamonds to its subsidiary the DTC (Diamond Trading Company) for cutting and polishing. Sightholders are a small group of companies that purchase diamonds from DTC for cutting and polishing. The trade center for diamonds only occurs at a few specific locations including Antwerp, London, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, New York, and Surat.

Once the gem grade diamonds are cut and polished, they are then put up for sale at bourses, a bourse refers to a diamond exchange. There are only 24 bourses in the world. At this point, the bourses then sell diamonds directly to wholesalers and retail outlets. The fact that there are such tight controls on supply and sale of diamonds makes diamonds much more valuable then their true mined value. For instance in 2002, the value of rough gem grade diamonds mined was only 9 billion dollars; however it rose more than 600% to 57 billion dollars at the retail point of sale.

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Venetia - The De Beers Flagship Mine

Saturday, May 31, 2008 by admin

The flagship mine for De Beers is the Venetia, located in South Africa. De Beers began searching for diamonds in this area as early as 1969, but the mine was not in full operation until 1993. The Venetia mine is the largest in South Africa and accounts for over 40% of all diamonds mined there.

The Venetia mine is an open-pit mine but there is a possibility that the mine could expand underground as well. Mine officials expect the surface mining to be able to continue for around twenty more years.

In June, De Beers installed a new diamond crusher at the mine which cost close to $32 million dollars. All of the diamond recovery work is done nearby. First, the kimberlite is exposed and the ore is blasted and then loaded into trucks. Once at the plant, it is crushed and sorted by size. X-ray fluorescence is used to find the diamonds and workers actually do the final sorting by hand. The diamonds are then sent off to the Central Selling Organisation which classifies the diamonds into over five thousand categories.

De Beers has been especially mindful to the environmental concerns of the Venetia mine area. No toxic chemicals are used in the processing of the ore and no chemical pollutants are released. All of the pipelines used are buried and they use a dust control system. They also try to minimize the noise coming from the area. They also set up a wildlife preserve and moved many animals from the mining area to the preserve.

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Cecil John Rhodes – The Founder of De Beers

by admin

De Beers is easily recognized around the world as the leader in diamond mining and in the sale of diamonds. But where did the name De Beers come from? And who was responsible for making De Beers what it is today?

De Beers has been around since 1880’s. At that time, diamonds were found on a South African farm near two rivers. The farm was owned by two brothers, named the De Beers. Because of all the pressure from people wanting access to the farm, the De Beers brothers eventually sold it for 6300 pounds which is equivalent to approximately 12,000 dollars. Two mine pits were set up on the farm and one was named after the De Beers brothers. Subsequently, the whole company was named after them, but they didn’t receive any profit after they sold the farm.

The most important player in the early days of De Beers was a man named Cecil John Rhodes. Rhodes became involved in the diamond industry in 1871. Around that time he also became friends with C.D. Rudd, who would become his partner when he founded De Beers. Rhodes was instrumental in acquiring most of the surrounding diamond operations which strengthened De Beers hold on the diamond market. Even though the diamond market wasn’t doing too well, he thought that he would be able to make it successful. And he was right.

Rhodes was a rather strange man. He was obsessed about creating his own secret society. However, he died before he was able to do it. In his will, he left money so that a secret society could be created to help Britain rule the entire world. The money wasn’t exactly used for that purpose however…it was used to establish The Rhodes Scholarship which allows students from Britain ruled countries as well as the US and Germany to study at the University of Oxford, where Rhodes himself had studied.

Rhodes was interested in the military and politics. During the Boer war, he went to try to help the British army. However, he felt the best way to do this was to insist that the army do what he thought they should do. The British army hated him. (Who can blame them?)

Towards the end of his life, Rhodes had a Polish princess infatuated with him. Her name was Catherine Radziwill and she had a habit of telling people that she was engaged to Rhodes or that they were having an affair. Turns out that she had asked Rhodes to marry her and he had turned her down. Broken hearted, she did what scorned women do best..she tried to get revenge. She sued Rhodes for loan fraud. Rhodes had never committed loan fraud, of course, and her accusations were found to be false. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Rhodes died right after the trial ended.

Despite his eccentric nature, Rhodes had almost single-handedly established what would become the largest diamond corporation in the world. He was only 49 when he died, but he died as one of the wealthiest men in the world.

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Conflict Diamonds

by admin

When you purchase a diamond what do you look for? Price? Quality? Uniqueness? The next time you purchase a diamond you might want to give some thought to conflict diamonds.

Conflict diamonds are diamonds which get traded illegally in order to raise money to support conflicts. In Africa, some of the poorest countries often have conflicts where rebels cease control of all of the natural resources. This will often include the diamonds the country produces.

Although conflict diamonds have gotten a lot of bad press, estimates are that only 1% of all diamonds are conflict diamonds. In addition, De Beers participates in what is called the Kimberley Process. Rough diamonds that need to cross an international border are placed in specialized containers and are given a conflict free certificate which is contains a unique serial number.

In addition, De Beers has agreed to show evidence to each purchaser up the chain that the diamonds are conflict free. This occurs all the way from the beginning of the Kimberley process to the final sale to the consumer.

Because of these safeguards, customers who purchase from De Beers can focus on finding the perfect diamond jewelry for their needs without having to be concerned that they are unknowingly supporting conflicts in diamond producing countries.

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