How Did De Beers Control The World's Supply Of Diamonds?

The De Beers company is viewed by many as an international diamond cartel. This is because they control nearly the entire world’s supply of diamonds through its sub companies and partners. De Beers has successfully taken a stone all so common and worthless and made it remarkably expensive. This is all due to the power and control over the market they had.

De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited was formed in 1888 by a man named Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes got his start by selling water pumps and ice to local miners during the early stages of the diamond rush in South Africa. Once Rhodes acquired enough wealth he approached the Rothschild bank in London for financing of his own mines. Rhodes quickly began buying up small mines. However, Rhodes was not

These are extremely valuable and less than 200 are found per year. What makes this mine even more unique is the fact that the mine is carved out of the side of a mountain 10,000 ft in the air. The Letseng mine does produce many gem diamonds, but when they do come across a super diamond it can easily cover two-weeks of operating expenses leaving the rest of the finds as pure profit. Mines such as the Lesotho or Botswana are more heavily skewed towards producing industrial diamonds. The industrial diamonds are diamonds of poor quality and look dirty. These diamonds are sent off and crushed into a powder like form to be used for tools and heavy duty equipment. Industrial diamonds is a huge market on its own. Industrial diamonds are put on nearly all industrial machines due to their remarkable hardness which allows for machines to cut through nearly any material with ease. De Beers does have one mine more profitable than all of its other mines in Africa combined. This mine is in Namibia and off of the cost of Namibia. In one day the mine has the ability to bring in between one and five million dollars of gem diamonds a day. This is because the mine sits on the edge of the atlantic ocean tectonic plate. The tectonic plate is a perfect diamond producer due to the constant pressure the plates