De Beers looks to Sierra Leone to source additional diamonds
The world's largest producer of rough diamonds by value seeks ethical diamonds from small-scale, artisanal miners
De Beers is starting a trial in Sierra Leone to work with small-scale and artisanal miners to source additional diamonds in an ethical way using technology to ensure a fresh supply of rough diamonds and provide improved working and living standards for those miners. De Beers, 85% owned by Anglo American, projects falling supply in the next few years as it shuts mines in Canada and Namibia and moves to underground operations at its Venetia mine in SA, with the outlook for 2017’s supply of up to 36-million carats falling to about 32-million carats for 2019 and 2020. The project in Sierra Leone is a pilot study and the world’s largest source of rough diamonds by value did not want to put figures on how many diamonds it would source or when it would formalise the project. De Beers is clearly looking for new sources of diamonds it can hold up as ethically sourced, improving communities’ lives and securing supplies of rough diamonds from a largely informal source of global diamonds and on...
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