Diamond is a mineral composed of pure carbon. This crystalline carbon has been polished and processed into various colorful diamonds, and its value has doubled and it is priceless. It has become a symbol of status and wealth and a dream of the world. South Africa's De Beers United Mining Company used to make money from diamonds, and now it has become a diamond kingdom with an annual output value of billions of dollars.
De Beers United Mining Company is the world's largest diamond production and marketing group, which belongs to the gold mining giant South Africa Anglo-American Company. In the mid-1960s, diamonds were first discovered near Kimberly, South Africa. The Debir brothers of the Boers built two diamond mining areas-Kimberlite Mine and Debir Mine. 1873, British adventurer and entrepreneur Rhodes bought the De Beers mine, eventually bought most of the diamond mines in southern Africa, and established De Beers Mining Company in 1888. In order to control the sales market, Rhodes organized a diamond syndicate in the middle of19th century. Rhodes died in 1902, and Oppenheimer, a German, went to Africa as a representative of a syndicate. 19 17 years, Anglo-American Company was established. After World War I, he bought a diamond mine in southwest Africa (Namibia) and a controlling stake in De Beers. After he became the chairman of De Beers, he strengthened his monopoly on the diamond market. During the Great Depression of 1930s, he completely controlled the diamond syndicate in London. The syndicate has now been renamed as the central sales organization.
/kloc-For more than 0/00 years, De Beers United Mining Company, headquartered in South Africa, has controlled 80% of the global diamond supply through smart sales and strict market manipulation. In people's minds, the name "De Beers" is as dazzling and mysterious as a diamond. From the dawn of a diamond mine in Botswana or Siberia to being put on the bride's ring finger, it takes countless hands to turn a diamond from a shapeless and unsightly stone into a shiny and colorful diamond. However, no matter what this diamond is used for and where it goes, it is possible to pass through London, a diamond trading center with a history of more than 350 years. Since 1930, London has been a strong sales place of De Beers Diamond Kingdom. It sells 80% of the world's diamonds, but only 20% of them come from its own diamond mines, and the rest are brought into its sphere of influence through the central sales organization. Last year, the central sales organization's total sales amounted to nearly $4 billion, and signed contracts with major diamond producing countries in the world to buy and sell their gems. Some countries, such as Botswana, sell 100% of diamonds to De Beers. This contract not only ensures that the producing countries don't have to worry about not selling gems, but also enables De Beers to closely control the global supply of gems. De Beers' customers are satisfied with this practice, saying that this "single channel sales" system reduces market fluctuations and eliminates price fluctuations. Critics say this violates the principle of competition. The company has avoided doing business directly in the American market for years because Washington has strict anti-monopoly laws.
Recently, however, the glory of De Beers' diamond empire has been eclipsed. Due to the global trend of oversupply of diamonds, De Beers' monopoly position is facing challenges and tests.
In Angola, tens of thousands of diamond miners poured into Lunda Norte province, and their enthusiasm was reminiscent of the gold rush in California. Unlike most diamond mines that require large-scale investment, alluvial diamond mines from Angola are easier to mine. De Beers estimates that there are about 50,000 people gathered there now, and this number is increasing by about 500 people every day. This trend of blind mining, trading and smuggling has made Angola the largest source of illegal diamond mining. De Beers Diamond Kingdom keeps putting pressure on Angola to take measures to severely punish and stop the behavior of private miners. During his visit to Luanda in July, Nikai Oppenheimer, vice chairman of De Beers Company, donated 200,000 US dollars to comprehensively combat the blind flow of diamond mining. This has achieved some results: a special police force entered the mining area and arrested and detained 600 Zambians, Gambians and other foreigners. But four months later, the diamond trading network was controlled by French-speaking Zambians, and illegal diamond smugglers still went their own way and were unscrupulous.
The biggest challenge to the hegemony of De Beers United Mining Company comes from Siberia, far away from the ocean and southern Africa. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, countries in trouble such as Russia actually increased their diamond exports. In the Siberian permafrost thousands of kilometers away from Moscow, there is a huge open-pit diamond mine named Milne. Huge dump trucks carry out the diamond-bearing ore kimberlite from the bottom of the 450-meter-deep mine. Such large-scale mining has made Russia one of the largest diamond producers in the world, with an annual output of about 7 million carats of high-quality diamonds. The diamond industry is Russia's fourth largest source of foreign exchange. Who will control Russia's rich diamond mines? This problem must keep De Beers' top managers awake at night. The harm caused by Russia's possible sale of diamonds in large quantities is enough to make De Beers nervous. The current chaos in Russian diamond industry is a long-term threat to De Beers diamond kingdom, and De Beers will eventually control the flow of diamonds.
The sharp increase in diamond suppliers may weaken De Beers' authority, and it is hard to say whether the company can maintain its monopoly position in the global diamond market. So far, diamond-producing countries are still loyal, but when the diamond kingdom asks its members to share the difficulties, the real challenge may come. Unless it stops the outflow of diamonds from Angola and other places, or miraculously meets the demand of the West, the pressure on it will increase.
The glory and shadow of De Beers diamond kingdom in South Africa illustrates a truth: free competition produces monopoly, but monopoly can't eliminate competition, but it intensifies competition, and monopoly can't stop competition in the end. Therefore, the tests and challenges faced by De Beers are inevitable.