N e w s

De Beers announced today that the company is going to take additional precautions to ensure that diamons purchased and sold by the company were not mined on a territory controlled by illegal military forces in Africa. The diamonds mined by the rebels fighting against legal and world accredited governments go under the name of "conflict stones" and are a vital source for financing the armed conflicts. Starting today all boxes containing diamonds extracted in Africa will be marked by a special lable pointing out that they were not mined on rebel-controlled territories. To ensure this the company is taking the responsibility of not purchasing precious stones if the seller cannot guarantee their origine. The measure will concern not only Angola but any other African country where an armed conflict with the official government is taking place. We remind that about 70% of the world diamond market belong to De Beers and therefore this decision will influence the market considerably, reports BBC.

Source: RBC