«Де Бирс» (De Beers )

De Beers at a glance

De Beers was established in 1888 and is the world’s leading diamond company with unrivalled expertise in exploration, mining and marketing of rough diamonds.  It produces approximately 40% of the world’s supply of rough diamonds from its mines in South Africa, and in partnership with the governments of Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania .  Approximately 45% of the world’s rough diamond production (made up from diamonds from De Beers mines and those which De Beers purchases from Alrosa, the Russian state diamond mining company) are sorted and valued by the Diamond Trading Company, the sales and marketing arm of De Beers, headquartered in London .

De Beers and its partner companies employ more than 21,000 people in 25 countries on five continents.  17,000 of these are based in the southern African operations.  De Beers has 15 mines across Africa and new mines are currently being built in Canada . The company has over a century of expertise in every form of mining (open pit, underground, alluvial, coastal and marine mining) as well as world-class skills in the sorting, valuing and marketing of diamonds.

In 2005 the De Beers Group generated US$6.5 billion in revenue and US$554 million in net earnings. 
De Beers is committed to southern Africa and making a lasting contribution to the people of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania .  The company supports and encourages sustainable working to ensure long term positive outcomes for Africa and spends more than US$10 million per year on more than 600 Corporate Social Investment (CSI) activities globally.

The changing face of De Beers

In 2005, De Beers announced a groundbreaking Black Economic Empowerment deal with Ponahalo Investment which saw the sale of 26% of the equity of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) to Ponahalo. The shareholders in Ponahalo represent the broadest possible cross-section of South African society.  This sale is heralded to be a clear demonstration of De Beers becoming a company that truly reflects the non-racial ideals of the government and citizens of South Africa . 

De Beers Group structure

De Beers Group is a privately owned company with three shareholders:

• Anglo American plc owns 45%
• Central Holdings Group owns 40% 
• The Government of Botswana owns 15%.

In recent years, De Beers has undergone a dramatic transformation to meet the challenges and opportunities for its business in the 21st century. 

De Beers and HIV/AIDS Workplace Programmes

De Beers is committed to addressing social and health issues that affect the communities in which it operates.  One of the key social and health issues to affect southern Africa is HIV/AIDS. The company is helping to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa by implementing workplace initiatives.  As part of its workplace initiative, De Beers provides training at all levels of the organisation to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS as well as educating and empowering people about HIV prevention and treatment.  The company also provides Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) to all employees for free, including non-permanent employees, and where possible the service is extended to families and community members.

De Beers and partner companies Debswana and Namdeb were among the first companies to offer free anti-retroviral treatment. This is available to HIV positive employees, their life partners and, in Botswana , this has now been extended to children of its employees. There are over 1,300 people registered on the three company programmes.  De Beers Group has received recognition for its work in HIV/AIDS from the International Chamber of Commerce, UNDP World Business Awards and The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

De Beers and Education

De Beers is committed to helping improve the education available to children in the areas where it works.  In the Limpopo Province of South Africa (Northern province which is home to the Venetia mine), De Beers partners with the local government in the Rural Schools Programme. The government and De Beers each provide 50% of the funding and together help improve schools which are in the deep rural areas of the province and often have poor facilities (small, rundown classrooms, unhygienic toilets etc.). The programme builds classrooms and new toilets to help the government meet their education targets for improving school facilities in South Africa .

De Beers and the Environment

The De Beers Family of Companies constantly strives to strike a balance between its economic, social and environmental responsibilities, while making a positive and lasting contribution to the environment and communities in which it operates.  To recover diamonds, De Beers uses modern mining methods and a clinical approach to the sustainability of mining.  Together, these methods and approach minimise the impact on the environment and De Beers also works to ensure it benefits the communities and countries where diamonds are found. Today the majority of the De Beers mines are managed to the ISO 14001 standard.  Only one mine has not yet been certified as ISO 14001 compliant although a management system is in place and it will go through the assessment to become ISO 14001 to ensure that all mines are certified by 2007.

De Beers and Conflict diamonds

In the 1990s, the United Nations, Governments, NGOs, De Beers Group and many other members of the diamond industry recognised there was a need for a global system to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate diamond supply chain and thus helping to fund conflict.  This system would also reassure customers that their diamonds were from conflict free sources.  This is called the Kimberley Process.  While in the 90s conflict diamonds accounted for a very small percentage of the global diamond trade thanks in part to the Kimberley Process today more than 99% of the world’s diamonds are certified to be from conflict free sources. For further information please visit:

www.debeersgroup.com