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De Beers has announced a $2million (£1.05m) project to improve the lives of Tanzania’s ‘informal’ diamond miners.
The multinational, which produces about 40 per cent of the world’s diamonds, says it wants better living and working conditions for such miners, who operate outside the mainstream diamond mining business in an unregulated environment where they are prey to middlemen.
Director Jonathan Oppenheimer said: ‘De Beers doesn’t have a business interest in informal mining, but we cannot sit idly by and watch millions of African miners and their families suffer. While we may not have all the solutions or expertise, we hope to work in partnership with those that do to give this programme the best chance.’
The pilot will improve access to market pricing information, so the miners can earn more from the stones they unearth, and will help agencies to provide basic healthcare for them and their families. De Beers says it will work with the Tanzanian government and NGOs to create a ‘workable model’ for use in other African countries. There are thought to be one million informal diamond miners in Africa, producing about 17 per cent of rough diamonds.
De Beers has become involved through its participation in the Diamond Development Initiative, whose members include Global Witness, the International Diamond Manufacturers’ Association, the World Bank and the Rapaport Group, a diamond trading company that is exploring the idea of creating a new ‘fair trade’ category of diamonds.
The initiative’s mission is to address the ‘political, social and economic challenges’ facing the informal diamond mining sector.
De Beers said it had chosen Tanzania for the first phase of its project because the company has formal mining operations there and the government had asked for help. The initiative has been named the Mwadui Community Diamond Partnership after the town in northern Tanzania where Williamson Diamonds, De Beers’ local operating company, has a joint venture interest in a mine.
Informal diamond mining occurs mainly in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also in the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Togo.
The multinational, which produces about 40 per cent of the world’s diamonds, says it wants better living and working conditions for such miners, who operate outside the mainstream diamond mining business in an unregulated environment where they are prey to middlemen.
Director Jonathan Oppenheimer said: ‘De Beers doesn’t have a business interest in informal mining, but we cannot sit idly by and watch millions of African miners and their families suffer. While we may not have all the solutions or expertise, we hope to work in partnership with those that do to give this programme the best chance.’
The pilot will improve access to market pricing information, so the miners can earn more from the stones they unearth, and will help agencies to provide basic healthcare for them and their families. De Beers says it will work with the Tanzanian government and NGOs to create a ‘workable model’ for use in other African countries. There are thought to be one million informal diamond miners in Africa, producing about 17 per cent of rough diamonds.
De Beers has become involved through its participation in the Diamond Development Initiative, whose members include Global Witness, the International Diamond Manufacturers’ Association, the World Bank and the Rapaport Group, a diamond trading company that is exploring the idea of creating a new ‘fair trade’ category of diamonds.
The initiative’s mission is to address the ‘political, social and economic challenges’ facing the informal diamond mining sector.
De Beers said it had chosen Tanzania for the first phase of its project because the company has formal mining operations there and the government had asked for help. The initiative has been named the Mwadui Community Diamond Partnership after the town in northern Tanzania where Williamson Diamonds, De Beers’ local operating company, has a joint venture interest in a mine.
Informal diamond mining occurs mainly in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also in the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Togo.
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