De Beers news.

[Karl_K]

"De Beers sold just $56 million of rough diamonds in the second quarter, down about 96% from a year earlier. RBC Capital Markets expects the company to post a $100 million loss in the first half of the year."

De Beers Rethinks Business After Diamond Collapse Exposes Cracks

(Bloomberg) -- De Beers is considering ways to restructure mines, expand in jewelry and overhaul diamond sales, as the world’s biggest and oldest producer rethinks its entire business in an industry left paralyzed by the pandemic.The company founded by British imperialist Cecil Rhodes in the...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Rockcollector]

Does anyone remember about 10-15 years ago De Beers overcharging for diamonds? It seems as though a lawsuit had been brought against them and if you had bought diamonds within a certain time frame, you get get some $ back. Although not a great deal, I got a little over $300 back.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

It will be interesting to see if they really do implement a new system of sales distribution. I have always thought that the 'sight' model was problematic and needed to be modernized.

Debeers has been tweaking it around the edges, but it is pretty clear it needs a makeover.

 

[MissGotRocks]

It always seemed like an over the top control method for doing business. Who offers products in a take it or leave it parcel and gets away with it for years? I hope it is overhauled for the good of all involved in the diamond business as well the consumer.

 

[Karl_K]

It will be interesting to see if they really do implement a new system of sales distribution. I have always thought that the 'sight' model was problematic and needed to be modernized.

Debeers has been tweaking it around the edges, but it is pretty clear it needs a makeover.

If they were a US company the EU would be all over them about it.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

If they were a US company the EU would be all over them about it.

The EU created more havoc for De Beers than US ever did in the past 20 years.
They forced them to give up marketing of all Russian diamonds (hhence the formation of Alrosa which is now a bit larger than De Beers).
De Beers is owned by 2 entities: Anglo American plc has an 85% shareholding and the Government of the Republic of Botswana owns 15% directly.
De Beers plc is the holding company of The De Beers Group of Companies.[71] It is involved in many parts of the diamond value chain, from mining to sales, and is made up of a series of joint ventures and wholly owned operations.

Some of the joint ventures are with the Namibian government:

• Debmarine Namibia
• Debswana[72]
• DTCB[73]
• Namdeb[74]
• NDTC

The wholly owned operations are in southern Africa and Canada. Also wholly owned are Forevermark, De Beers Jewellers,[75] the International Institute of Diamond Valuation, De Beers Ventures, the International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research and Element Six (Umicore has a 40% stake in Element Six's abrasives division).
Wikipedia should be updated to mention LightBox which I believe is associated with Element Six.

Anglo American are not going broke anytime soon. Diversified miner. Big Co.
If the diamonds stay in the ground for a year till there is a vaccine it will harm Botswanians and Namibians more than anyone else.
Not to mention a million Indians.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Does anyone remember about 10-15 years ago De Beers overcharging for diamonds? It seems as though a lawsuit had been brought against them and if you had bought diamonds within a certain time frame, you get get some $ back. Although not a great deal, I got a little over $300 back.

De Beers lost its monopoly 2 decades ago. The media really just keep reporting the same old crap over and over.