DeBeers cares about black people

November 8, 2005 4:33 PM

DeBeers is selling 26% of its mining operations to a South African "black empowerment" holding company. The new company's shareholders include DeBeers mines' local employees and pensioners and trusts benefiting disadvantaged groups. Its chairman has been a prominent figure in the ANC and the National Union of Mineworkers. Seems pretty cool, even if DeBeers is only doing it because South Africa's Mining Charter says they have to.
posted by thirteenkiller (35 comments total)

i some of my wages goes towards public transport and children's schools.

so am i pretty cool too? even if i have to pay taxes anyway?
posted by andrew cooke at 4:40 PM on November 8, 2005

Nope your still not cool. I wonder what other percentage of their mines are sketchy?
posted by pwally at 4:44 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS
posted by jcruelty at 4:45 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS
posted by basicchannel at 4:49 PM on November 8, 2005

It's kind of refreshing to talk about the DeBeers in the scope of crime, because in the case of most companies, you can say "Well, at least they bring in low prices (Wal-Mart)" or "Man, those are some fine classic movies (Disney)". But the DeBeers empire has nothing good to speak for it; over a hundred years of rotten labor relations, a product of falsified value, and, if you're feeling particularly uncharitable, the blood of thousands of victims on its hands...
posted by jcruelty at 4:49 PM on November 8, 2005

Damn right, fuck DeBeers.
posted by fenriq at 4:52 PM on November 8, 2005

It seems somewhat fishy to me that this company is getting a stake in the "mining operations." Are the "mining operations" separate from the "sitting on a huge stockpile of diamonds that will be slowly released into the market at a controlled premium for the next 100 years" operations?
posted by zekinskia at 4:53 PM on November 8, 2005

So should we expect the price of diamonds to drop and this new holding company to make a mere pittance? Would anyone care to comment on the economics of this?
posted by tzelig at 5:00 PM on November 8, 2005

damn.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:14 PM on November 8, 2005

The words "too little too late" come to mind.
posted by blendor at 5:26 PM on November 8, 2005

Fuck DeBeers with a hand-less stump.
posted by stet at 6:06 PM on November 8, 2005

I hear some people pay and arm and a leg for those Debeers diamonds...
posted by any major dude at 6:06 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS.
posted by NationalKato at 6:11 PM on November 8, 2005

Not just 15 years too late.....that country was behind the rest of the world for way too long.....
posted by narebuc at 6:24 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS
posted by es_de_bah at 7:24 PM on November 8, 2005

rawr

i wholeheartedly agree with the fuck debeers statements. i am sickened by our 'bling bling' culture. people who buy diamonds or accept diamonds are either stupid or have no conscience. my boyfriend knows that if he ever gets me a diamond i will leave him on the spot.

/rawr
posted by nadawi at 7:30 PM on November 8, 2005

I'll chime in a Fuck DeBeers, too. The entire executive staff of that company should be taken out back and bludgeoned to death.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:42 PM on November 8, 2005

I'll chime in a Fuck DeBeers, too. The entire executive staff of that company should be taken out back and bludgeoned to death.

And on a really bad day, you could probably even get me to say that their children, and their children's children, should suffer the same fate. An example should be set.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:43 PM on November 8, 2005

Whoa. Neo!
posted by five fresh fish at 7:43 PM on November 8, 2005

FFF, a glitch in the matrix?

The "mined" Diamond Industry's days are numbered, anyway.
posted by shoepal at 7:52 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS. The diamond from my wife's wedding ring was originally set in my great unkle's 32'nd degree mason ring. It was Russian Mine cut.

I use industrial diamond abrasives every day, and await any drop in price from these products.
posted by Balisong at 7:52 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS. Totally for this little movement, such an artificial monopoly deserves nothing but infamy and ridicule.

I can't wait to see the "artificial" diamonds take over. They're essentially the same thing, just produced much, much quicker. I can only hope the diamond investors come back to DeBeers with a vengeance.

I've seen plenty of people living hand to mouth that insist on a real diamond wedding ring. After all, it's not a wedding ring if it doesn't have diamonds. It's okay to pawn it though, that doesn't cheapen the sentiment at all. /disgusted rant

I eagerly await the day we hear of DeBeers management on trial for unfair business practices, what amounts to widespread fraud, labor violations reminiscent of the 1800s, and the deaths of thousands of innocents in the way of their profits.
posted by Saydur at 8:30 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:11 PM on November 8, 2005

FUCK DEBEERS. FUCK THEM UP THEIR FUCKING ASSES.
posted by Hicksu at 9:12 PM on November 8, 2005

Fuck DeBeers and their STUPID ASS FACE.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:30 AM on November 9, 2005

I can't wait to see the "artificial" diamonds take over. They're essentially the same thing, just produced much, much quicker.

Unfortunately, I can quite easily imagine the same De Beers that has artifically generated today's obsession with diamonds through a decades-long marketing campaign, doing exactly the same thing with the real/fake diamonds issue.

Nature's Diamonds Last For Ever.™

P.S. "fuckdebeers.com" is available! Anyone?
posted by chrismear at 5:09 AM on November 9, 2005

Wired article about deBeers and synthetic diamonds. Old, but still excellent.
posted by artifarce at 6:37 AM on November 9, 2005

fuckdebeeers dot com, then.
posted by zpousman at 6:42 AM on November 9, 2005

Regarding the economics of this: DeBeers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) is the DeBeers subsidiary in question. Since all DeBeers companies are private, it's hard to find good information on exactly how they are structured, but this profile of DBCM says they have $7043.00 M in annual revenue, and the AllAfrica article I linked says they had R1.69 B in net profit last year, which is around $250 M. I don't think DBCM deals in marketing, which is where the huge markups would be, but they do see some profit.
posted by thirteenkiller at 7:39 AM on November 9, 2005

Though I feel a little silly saying it in this context, fuck Debeers.
posted by Tlogmer at 8:22 AM on November 9, 2005

Yeah, but how will anybody know whether you're wearing a synth diamond or a "mined" one?

They won't be able to tell, but you'll know. And if you're the kind of person who wears diamonds so that other people can go 'Wow, a diamond!', then I bet you'll waste no time telling them that it's a real one.

A mined diamond and an artificial diamond may be physically indistinguishable for all I know, but it's not the object itself that people lust after. They want the knowledge that they own 'the real thing'. They want the prestige. If nothing else, they want to know that somebody actually spent that insane amount of money on them.

De Beers are selling an image and a concept, not an actual product. As long as they can keep that up, they'll stay in business.
posted by chrismear at 8:32 AM on November 9, 2005

So if we're all agreed that DeBeers should be fucked, why is it that they still exist? Surely if the sentiment is so strong on MeFi, it would also be strong out in the general public, no?
posted by five fresh fish at 2:31 PM on November 9, 2005

but with some of these artificial ones will be impossible to distinguish it from natural diamonds.
Infact, in one of those artificial diamond articles on of the companies is making money already by selling the synthetics to diamond wholesalers in India, and "not asking them" about the resale conditions.

And if in the future the synthetic diamonds are so much cheaper, and exactly the same, then theres nothing stoping me from setting up a diamond "mine."
posted by Iax at 6:40 PM on November 9, 2005

Canadian Indians set themselves up to be screwed by De Beers.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:15 AM on November 10, 2005

So if we're all agreed that DeBeers should be fucked, why is it that they still exist? Surely if the sentiment is so strong on MeFi, it would also be strong out in the general public, no?

speaking of which, do you hear what happened after that lynch mob raided the white house last night?
posted by andrew cooke at 2:41 PM on November 12, 2005