DeBeers, once a monopoly of diamond mining and manufacturing for a hundred years. It is a cartel of companies which participates in rough diamond explorations, mining and trade. The company was founded by Cecil Rhodes and the multiple companies within De Beers are responsible for about 40% of diamond production in the world. They have created an increase in the desire for diamonds with their famous slogan: "A diamond is forever." However, advocates play against this advertising line due to De Beers' success from conflict diamonds. Their diamond market derive from South Africa by British owners and own about 70% of diamond mines in Africa. The discovery of the Kimberley diamond fields in the late 1800s became a major source of De Beers' profit and rise to the company. The sudden renaissance of Kimberley has been attributed to new diamond discoveries in what De Beers regarded for years as worthless land – at least for mining. And that has fed rumors in the close-knit international diamond community that Kimberley has become a major laundering center for Africa's "conflict diamonds". Human rights groups accused it of purchasing illicit diamonds from African rebels as well. De Beers was placed in a troubled situation where their clean luxurious image have been tainted. De Beers seeks to improve their image by promoting new policies concerning conflict diamonds. Their policy applied to all of Africa: they would only purchase and trade legitimate diamonds which were not used to fund rebel groups. They also developed a zero-tolerance policy later in 1999 and stopped all outside trade and purchase of diamonds in order to guarantee their conflict free status of the company.
A fellow blogger comments on De Beers position on conflict diamonds:
"Let's not forget that the De Beers company has had a monopoly on diamond mining and manufacturing for a hundred years. I know... you already know these things. So why am I bothering to beat this dead horse? I am a media scholar, and it is the media aspect about diamonds that makes me so sick. If diamonds weren't overpriced status symbols, weren't harvested from mines by slaves under the stress of immeasurable brutality and suffering, if the polishing wasn't done by child labor, and if their manufacturing wasn't almost completely operated by a single corporation, I'd still have the following reason not to buy one."
De Beers Commercial
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