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Active
Famous Diamond Mines
Currently
there are eleven major 'diamond producing' nations, and a host of
other counties with operational and/or historic alluvial, open pit,
and hard rock diamond mines. There are also several African nations
with ongoing off-shore dredging/vacuming operations.
These lists
also contains new project explorations, mining operator info, mining
industry inside news, links to satellite images of the mines (where
available), and any relevant geographic data.
Active Mines |
Inactive Mines | Future Exploration | Mining Companies
Africa
Angola
Catoca Diamond
Mine: Fourth largest diamond mine in world. Kimberlite pipe. map
Fucauma
Diamond Mine: Newly constructed. Owned by Endiama (40%) & Trans
Hex (35%).
Luarica
Diamond Mine: Owned by Endiama (38%) & Trans Hex (32%).
Luzamba
Diamond Mine: Angola's largest alluvial mine, Endiama (50%),
Odebrecht (50%). map
Botswana
Damtshaa
Diamond Mine: (water for a tortoise) New open pit mine. De Beers /
Botswana. map
Jwaneng
Diamond Mine: (place of small stones) richest mine in world. De Beers/Botswana.
map
Letlhakane
Diamond Mine: ("little reeds") second oldest of four - De
Beers / Botswana. map
Orapa Diamond
Mine: (resting place for lions) Largest/oldest of four - DeBeers/Botswana.
map
Congo (DROC or RDC)
Bakwanga Mine:
(aka Bushimaïe, Lubilash) Alluvial river mines in Kasaï.
MIBA. map
Forminière
Diamond Mine: Alluvial mine located on the River Tshikapa, in
Kasaï - closed. map
Lesotho
Letseng
Diamond Mine: Open-cast mine in Maluti Mountains 70 km from
Mokhotlong. map
Namibia
Elizabeth Bay
Mine: Open-cast mine in Namib desert, south of Lüderitz. Namdeb. map
Orange River
(Daberas) Mines: Orange River alluvium. Namdeb Namib Gov. map
Marine Mining:
Namco Mining operates a dredging fleet off the west coast of Namibia. map
Sierra Leone
Magna Egoli
Mine: Largest mechanized mine in Sierra Leone. Waldman Resources,
Israel. map
Koidu-Sefadu
Mines: Subsistence digging in alluvium pits west of Koidu. map
Koidu Open Pit
Mines: Kimberlite open-pit mines just south of Koidu. map
South Africa
Baken Diamond
Mine: Located along Orange River in North Cape, So Africa. Trans Hex. map
Cullinan
Diamond Mine: Open Pit/Hard Rock diamond mine owned by De Beers. map
Finsch Diamond
Mine: Finsch is an open-pit mine near Lime Acres, De Beers operated. map
Kimberley
Diamond Mine: Started in 1871, the Kimberley Open Pits closed in
2005. map
Koffiefontein
Diamond Mine: The Koffiefontein mine opened in 1870. Closed in 2006. map
The Oaks
Diamond Mine: In Limpopo province. Open-pit mine De Beers operated. map
Venetia
Diamond Mine: Limpopo, produces over 40% of world's gem-quality
diamonds. map
Tanzania
Williamson
Diamond Mine: (aka Mwadui mine) Open Pit mine. 75% De Beers ownership map
Zimbabwe
Murowa Diamond
Mine: Open Pit & Underground mine. 75% De Beers ownership. map
River Ranch
Diamond Mine: Open Pit & Underground mine. 75% De Beers
ownership. map
Australia
East Kimberley
Argyle Diamond
Mine: Largest producer in world, mostly industrial grade. Rio Tinto. map
Borneo
Cempaka/Riam
Kanan, South Kalimantan
Cempaka
Diamond Mines: Alluvials mined by indigenous artisanal Kalimantan
miners. map
Canada
North West
Territories (NWT)
Diavik Diamond
Mine: The Diavik diamond mine is located in the NWT. map
Ekati Diamond
Mine: Canada's first diamond mining operation, located in NWT. map
India
Madhya Pradesh
Panna Diamond
Mine: Alluvial mine in state of Madhya Pradesh. map
Russia
Siberia
Aikhal GOK
Mine: Three open-pit kimberlite pipe mines: Aikhal, Jubilee, and
Sytykan. map
Anabar GOK
Mine: The norther most location of Russia's diomond mines. map
Jubilee
(Yubileinaya) Mine: Newer open-pit kimberlite mine near Udachny. Alrosa.
Mirna Mine:
Largest diamond deposit in Russia and one of the largest in the
world. map
Udachnaya
(Udachny) Pipe Mine: One of the deepest diamond mines in the world. map
De Beers
The De Beers
group is an internationally based diamond mining and trading company
that has controlled the flow of diamonds in the US market place for
decades. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be cartel, as De
Beers was formed as a group of producers whose goal it was to fix
prices, control supply and limit competition, and this is exactly
what De Beers has done historically with the trade of diamonds.
The name
"De Beers" originated with two Afrikaner farmers, Diederik
Arnoldus De Beers and Johannes Nicholas de Beers. The De Beers
brothers discovered diamonds on their farm and unable to deal with
the stress of protecting the farm from the influx of diamond seekers,
they sold the land and the mines. The land was home to two large
mines were involved in the transaction: Premier and Kimberly.
Huge battles
raged through the next few years as two entities emerged on top of
the competition to acquire the land. These entities were the Barnato
Mining Company formed by Barney Barnato and prospective investors,
Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd. While De Beers had already acquired
Premier, they wanted Kimberly as well. The buying began, each company
ferociously buying up stock in "Kimberly Central."
Eventually Rhodes and Rudd won out and forced Barnato to agree to a
merger with De Beers.
De Beers
Consolidated Mines Limited was thus formed in 1888. As a group, they
owned all of Premier, most of Kimberly, and several other mines. The
company was granted an official listing on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange in August 1893 (DeBeers.com).
Over a decade
later, the De Beers cartel formed, made up of the newly named Barnato
Brothers, Anglo American, and JCI. Anglo American and the Barnato
Brothers owned most of the stock, about 90% combined. Through Anglo
American, De beers began to acquire a large number of other mines,
including the Consolidated Diamond Mines. Some of the largest during
their time, acquiring the CDM was a huge coup for the De Beers Group.
In the 1930's,
Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the chairman of De Beers Group and leader of
Anglo American, came up with the idea of "single channel
marketing" which he defined as "a producers' co-operative
including the major outside, or non-De Beers producers in accordance
with the belief that only by limiting the quantity of diamonds put on
the market, in accordance with the demand, and by selling through one
channel, can the stability of the diamond trade be maintained."
This new
single channel marketing structure eventually came to be known as the
Central Selling Organisation (CSO) (DeBeers.com) Basically,
Oppenheimer formed a cartel on the premise that he was operating a
legitimate enterprise. He stomped out all competition and kept a
stranglehold on the supply of diamonds, upping their value and rarity
through a limited supply that De Beers doled out carefully. It is
safe to say that during this time De Beers Group owned and controlled
about 90% of diamond production in the world; thus they could control
the "rarity" and value and keep a hold on the lucrative
industry. Many of their dealings were shady, and they were known for
particular ruthlessness against their competitors.
De Beers Group
operated out of London and sold diamonds in the United States through
supplying numerous smaller businesses in the States with the coveted
gems. Because of anti-trust laws forbidding, among other
prohibitions, the formation of cartels, De Beers could not set up
shop in the US.
The diamond
market came crashing down with the advent of the depression in the
1930's, and De Beers shut major mines like the Kimberly, Premier, and
Consolidated Diamond Mines. They kept up the production of non-De
Beers companies' mines to keep a hold on the market and waited for
events to even out. But conditions for De Beers continued to worsen
with the advent of World War Two, when they were forced to shut down
almost completely.
They were
revived again in the forties with the help of Oppenheimer's son
Harry, who took over the helm of De Beers from his father. He visited
the US in 1939 with the hope of finding a marketing firm that would
agree to direct a pilot marketing campaign. He met N.W. Ayer and
engaged the agency to begin a marketing campaign. They came up with a
campaign targeting the emotional value of a diamond. Frances Gerety,
a young copywriter for N.W. Ayer, coined the famous slogan "A
Diamond is Forever."
The goal
behind the marketing campaign was to ensure that women kept their
diamonds literally forever. The goal was to prevent a secondary
market for diamonds by persuading women that diamonds should be
untouched by another woman to really have any menaing. This allowed
De Beers to maintain control of the diamond trade at wholesale level
andretailers to sell diamonds at a high price without competition
from secondary markets. They touted engagement and wedding rings,
anniversary necklaces, and anything of value that a woman could want.
It was this marketing campaign that made diamond wedding and
engagement rings so popular, and pushed diamonds to become the number
one coveted gem by women.
In fact his
campaign was so successful, it worked on an international level and
brought countries like Japan into De Beers' sphere. By the late 90's,
Japan produced 33% of the worlds diamond commodities (www.wikipedia.com).
De Beers
flourished and grew over the years, establishing itself as an
international diamond cartel that was highly successful, ruthless
against its competitors, and king in the world of diamonds. With a
wealth of diamonds at its fingertips, the possibilities were endless.
In the early
1980's De Beers hit another snag as sales dropped and they were once
again losing money. But by the late eighties and early nineties they
were back on their feet and expanding into other parts of the world
such as South America and Asia, into the oceans with the formation of
an underwater mining company, Debeers Marine Limited, and throughout Europe. |
