Diamonds
When you hear diamonds what do you think?? Most people think of a wedding rings and
how expensive they are. Well when some people hear the word diamonds they might think of a
company called De Beers and how they are considered a cartel.
De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of
modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber,
and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have
continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the
Depression.(the Economist, p17, June 3rd 2000)
Through the years De Beers has sort of monopolized the diamond market. Since the company has
broken anti trust laws they are not allowed to sell in the United States. Diamonds are said to be
highly over rated because there is plenty of them but only so many are sold while the rest are stock
piled. The company owns 40% of the worlds raw diamond supply and about 60% of the polished.
(Economist, “ losing their sparkle” p17)
The main way that De Beers controls the diamond market is that they only allow a certain
amount of diamonds to be sold, that way they keep the diamond prices high. When actually they
have many diamonds that could be sold but they keep them from going to market. Since they do
not sell all the diamonds that they mine, they raise the price. De Beers has made stock piles of
diamonds that they have just incase there is a dry spell in their mining. Also the prices will stay
high for now and so, when the mines go dry they will have something to still sell at a high price.
De Beers also has the worry of other cou...
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...Sparkle,
17)
There are many things that cause worry to this company. Most of it is their fault, but they
are just doing so they can sell their goods they really aren’t hurting anyone directly. Hopefully
things will become easier for them and they will be aloud to sell in the states. But until that time
they will probably keep n doing what they do, stock piling buy diamonds before they go to market
dealing with rivaling countries. It will all go on as long as they are in business.
Bibliography:
Axon, Gordon, The Wonderful World Of Gems, New York, New York, Criterion Books,
1967
“De Beers is it”, The Economist, Dec 19, 1998, p89
“Is it a crack or a scratch? De Beers” The Economist, Sept 12, 1992, p76
“Losing their Sparkle”, The Economist, June 3, 2000, p17
“ Diamonds aren’t Forever”, Time , Oct 12, 1992, p 73
Deep within African mines, elusive diamonds lay enveloped in the Earth’s crust. Possessing much influence, beauty, and tension, nature’s hardest known substance causes parallel occurrences of unity and destruction on opposite sides of the globe. Diamonds, derived from the Greek word "adamas", meaning invincible, are formed deep within the mantle, and are composed entirely from carbon. Moreover, only under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure can diamonds form into their preliminary crystal state. In fact, diamonds are formed approximately 150km- 200km below the surface and at radical temperatures ranging from 900-1300 C°. When these extremes meet, carbon atoms are forced together creating diamond crystals. Yet how do these gems, ranking a ten on Moh’s hardness scale, impact the individual lives of millions of people besides coaxing a squeal out of brides-to-be? These colorless, yellow, brown, green, blue, reddish, pink, grey and black minerals are gorgeous in their cut state, but how are these otherwise dull gems recognized and harvested? Furthermore, how and why is bloodshed and violence caused over diamonds in Africa, the supplier of approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds? (Bertoni) The environmental, social, and economic impact of harvesting, transporting, and processing diamonds is crucial because contrary to popular belief, much blood has been spilled over first-world “bling”.
In Nicky Oppenheimer's speech, he states that diamonds are a valuable luxury desired by many and DeBeers strives to preserve their value. Furthermore, he claimed that it is essential for DeBeers to "be able to clear the market of all rough diamond production". Other companies who deal with this luxury will be motivated by evil greed, so DeBeers has the duty to ensure that these types of companies will not gain power. From the discovery of diamonds in certain countries in Africa, DeBeers has allowed their economies to drastically grow. Oppenheimer also brings up an interesting point when he compares how similar the diamond and oil industries are with their regulations standards, which lessens the negative views on DeBeers' brand, since they
Since the discovery of diamonds, the precious gem has always remained an item of luxury and great beauty and one that requires a great deal of financial sacrifice in order to acquire. Prices of diamonds have remained relatively stable over the last 100 years while prices of other commodities have fluctuated heavily (Hauser, 2002). Diamonds are a relatively rare commodity which gives them a high value and with the help of De Beer’s advertising campaign, spanning the last six decades, that high value appeal has been sustained. However, the high price of diamonds cannot be solely down to its rarity as the discovery of new deposits over the past decades has led to an increase in the number of diamonds available and thus since they aren’t as rare as they once were, the prices should’ve dropped. This essay argues that the price of diamonds is too high due to the fact that although the amount of diamonds available has increased over time, prices have remained relatively stable. The essay will show that there are powerful entities influencing the price of diamonds in such a way that the current and recent prices have been much greater compared to what they were and are meant to be. The essay will achieve its objectives through outlining the role of the diamond cartel in influencing the price of diamonds and it’ll seek to highlight the powerful entities controlling the cartel and explain how the cartel managed to set and maintain high prices.
In “ “Blood Diamonds” and Africa’s Armed Conflicts in the Post – Cold War Era, “ Orogun (2004) said that diamonds are referring as “clean stones”. This article explains about the black market is really happening in African. I am using this article to support how the black market of diamond trades is still not regulated, and they defined it as “licit” trade.
About status within your peer group. Even people on low monthly salaries would buy a high quality diamond: it was a family driven purchase.
A beautiful precious diamond can last forever, but what most people do not know is that a majority of our diamonds come from Africa. The civil wars in Africa over diamonds began around 1961 and ended in 2003. Conflict diamonds were rampant and it would be difficult to say if any jewelry sold prior to 2003 was conflict free. Conflict diamonds are diamonds that have been mined and were controlled by African rebels. The rebels would use the profits from selling conflict diamonds to fund illegal activity and to purchase more weapons for their armies. While rebels had control of the diamond mines they killed approximately 4 million people and countless families were displaced.
Up until the 19th century, diamonds were considered to be one of the most prized possessions that could be found, hence they were reserved only for those who are the heads of royal families. However, this all changed when English-born businessman Cecil John Rhodes bought up diamond fields in South Africa as well as claims to the diamonds and began the company ‘De Beers’, named after two brothers who had found deposits of the commodity on their land, which made it possible for the general public to own a piece of this precious stone – at a high price.
It’s hard to imagine that a mineral could be fueling wars and funding corrupt governments. This mineral can be smuggled undetected across countries in a coat pocket, then be sold for vast amounts of money. This mineral is used in power tools, parts of x-ray machines, and microchips but mostly jewelry. Once considered the ultimate symbol of love, the diamond has a darker story. "Blood" diamonds or "conflict" diamonds are those mined, polished, or traded in areas of the world where the rule of law does not exist. They often originate in war-torn countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Côte d'Ivoire were rebels use these gems to fund genocide or other questionable objectives. Even with a system known as the Kimberly process which tracks diamonds to prevent trade of these illicit gems, infractions continue as the process is seriously flawed. The continuation of the blood diamond trade is inhuman, and unethical, and in order to cease this illicit trade further action to redefine a conflict diamond, as well as reform to the diamond certification prosess is nessasary.
This company has come a long way into the sustainable and triple bottom line world. “Four wind turbines were erected in 2013 to reduce the use of diesel fuel, which had to be trucked in on a 550-km ice road at a cost of $70 million a year” (Hamilton, 2016). Wind turbines are put into place to create electricity through the spinning of the propellers. Mines are underground therefore it is extremely crucial to have electricity through renewable energy to create light for the miners underground because of the darkness being created. More importantly, if every corporation were to include the triple bottom line in their business goals, it would aid with climate change and global
iii. India dominates the world’s cut and polished diamonds (CPD) market. In value terms, the country accounts for approximately 55 percent of global polished diamond market and nearly 9 percent of the jewellery market. According to GJEPC's provisional estimate, cut and polished diamonds registered 19.06 percent growth in exports at US$ 7.11 mn.
[5] Diamond Industry Annual Review, De Beers Signs New Angolan Agreement, [internet] Accessed on: 13th November 2005, http://www.pacweb.org/e/images/stories/documents/addendum%20angola%202005-english.pdf
The value of diamonds lies on their physical properties that make them suitable for many applications. Natural diamonds are only of high value if they are scarce in nature. Realizing this, De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed to control the supply of diamonds from mines across the world. The diamond market is influenced by mine production, rough diamond distribution, preparation/cutting, and retail markets. The project will be concentrating on the retail markets for diamonds and other high end jewelry.
The film marker is trying to raise awareness of the illicit conflict diamond trade and reinforcing the Kimberley process1 and showing how it will stem the flow of conflict diamonds. This is successful mainly due to the public outburst after the movie. The great impact of the movie has caused diamond companies like De Beers2 to start a pre-emptive PR (public relationship) campaign, even before the movie was released to inform people that their diamonds are conflict-free.
The third determinant of the diamond – related and supporting industries looks at the industry suppliers and...
A Diamond is one of the two natural minerals that are produced from carbon. The other mineral is Graphite. Even though both of these minerals are produced from the same element ,carbon, they have totally different characteristics. One of the most obvious difference is that Diamond is hard and Graphite is soft. The Diamond is considered to be the most hardest substance found in nature. It scores a perfect ten in hardness. Because of its hardness a tiny Diamond is used as a cutting and drilling tool in industry. Even the Greeks called the Diamond “adamas” which means unconquerable. Diamonds also conducts heat better than any other mineral .