Playing With Diamonds!

If this is your first visit to this blog, I encourage you to begin with the September Blogs to get a better understanding of what this journey is all about.

So we spent the entire day at De Beers on Friday... and I have never seen my husband so happy... EVER!  He was like a kid in the candy store.

Now, we are not talking the De Beers

store here folks... This is the largest diamond company in the world.  They produce 40% of the world's r

ough diamonds (at one time they produced 90% of rough but have scaled back due to monopoly concerns). 

We spent the day at their London offices where they sort and 

distribute their rough diamonds. Between 9am and 5pm they gave us an all access tour of their operation.  We toured their facilities, observed their experts sort diamonds by hand and machine, and were given a course on how to sort rough diamonds ourself.  They call it "diamond school" and they taught us to sort rough by color, size, clarity and the best cut for a given piece of rough.

Sam had an ear to ear grin on his face all day.... but my favorite parts were 1) Lunch where we talked in depth with Simon Gilbert, head of IR for De Beers)... 2) Pints with the UN folks after Diamond School... 3) And of course playing with diamonds.  We louped a 49 carat rough diamond and shoved our hands wrist deep into piles of smaller stones... so cool!

Oh by the way, have you seen the ring Sam bought me to wear on our trip?  We had to leave my ring at home for obvious reasons... so he bought this one cheap!  Lovely isn't it?  Let me just tell you how much I missed my ring at De Beers :)

But now on the the important stuff (at least for me because that was the important stuff for Sam)

My purpose for meeting with De Beers was threefold... First off, who better to get a basic idea of how the rough diamond trade works than from the largest producer in the world.  Second, De Beers is like the holy grail for Sam and I felt privileged to provide him opportunity to spend time inside the enigma that is De Beers.  And third, De Beers has been long painted as a villain in the media.  From stock piling diamonds and acting as a monopoly in the early years to their portrayal in the movie "Blood Diamond"... I wanted to ask questions of them myself.

You see, De Beers was one of the first organizations I contacted when planning this journey to Sierra Leone.  Early this year, I began an e-mail relationship with Simon Gilbert who was a wealth of information on Sierra Leone.    Almost immediately he provided me with 90% of the contacts I needed in Sierra Leone.   These non-profit organizations and government agencies are unaffiliated with De Beers and include UN Representatives, USAID in Sierra Leone, the Diamond Development Initiative, Sierra Leone Government Diamond Office, and many more. 

As I worked with each of these organizations to prepare for the trip, I realized how much of a hand De Beers has had in rebuilding Sierra Leone.  Keep in mind that De Beers does not nor ever has mined in Sierra Leone.  Most of there operations are in Southern and Eastern Africa. Furthermore, the mining in Sierra Leone is mainly Artisanal (panning & digging by hand) where De Beers' operations are primarily industrial (where the rough is rarely touched even by mine managers).  So to spend time and money in a country that they have no connection to shows the dichotomy that I saw in De Beers... the good work they are doing on the continent of Africa vs. the villain status they have long held world wide.  

I was also surprised that I have not heard about any of this humanitarian work that De Beers has been doing... they simply don't publicize it.  Partially because it would likely bring an immediate back lash, and partially because there are many who would think it was a media ploy.... but needless to say the humanitarian work they are involved in is impressive to say the least.  (Note: It was not De Beers that told me about this work, rather I stumbled across references to their names in the numerous NGO documents I've studies and interviews I've conducted in preparation for this trip. 

Ok... so on to the tough stuff... when I questioned them on their "Villain" status I was surprised at how open and honest they were with me.  They admitted that their business practices dating back over a century may not have been ethical by today's standards... but they can't go back and change the past.  They can only impact their current work.  And currently they have no stockpiles (it is just not cost effective to keep piles of diamonds lying around anyway), they only control 40% of the industry (in stead of 90%) and ALL of their clients (78 site holders who are allowed to buy their Rough) are bound by best practice contracts.  They must undergo go incredible scrutiny before they can even buy rough from De Beers... including proper working conditions for employees, adherence to all state and federal laws and even extensive recycling programs.  They also have to prove that they are giving back to the communities they are working in.  

There are so many other things we talked about, but because my stories are not necessarily about De Beers (since they don't actually mine in Sierra Leone) I don't want to focus too much on them.  But if you have questions (or criticism) as I'm sure many will after reading this, I'd be happy to share with you more about our experience there.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with Global Witness... an NGO that works to "break the links between natural resources, conflict and corruption".  They were instrumental bringing the issue of Blood Diamonds in Sierra Leone to the forefront of media attention.  They continue to act as sort of global watch dogs over the African Diamond industry.

They will be our final meeting before hopping on a plane to Sierra Leone.  Stay Tuned...