The Clinton Global Initiative, held in September this year, in New
York served as a fitting platform for a social-invest- ment
announcement from De Beers director Jonathan Oppen-heimer and
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
Oppenheimer and Kikwete annou- nced a $2-million project to help
improve the lives of so-called ‘informal’
diamond-miners in Tanzania, who work in stream and river beds where
diamonds occasionally wash up. Informal mining is often
unregu-lated and workers are fremobile crusher price in singaporequently exploited by middlemen and
rogue traders.
Sadly, these conditions exist across western and central Africa
and, as a result, nearly 1,3-million informal miners live in abject
povertyflow chart of grinding wheel production despite the value of the diamonds they mine.
The aim of the De Beers project is to provide these miners with
access to fair-market pricing and healthcare.
“Dcrushed quartz water purificatione Beers does not have a business interest in informal
mining, but we cannot sit idly by and watch millions of African
miners and their families suffer,” said Oppenheimer.
“While we may not have all the solutions or expertise, we
hope to work in a partnership with those that do to give this
programme the best chance of success,” he continued.
De Beers will be working in conjunction with the Tanzanian
government and several nongovernmental organisations in the hope of
creating a workable model that can be used to help informal miners
in other diamond-producing countries like Sierre Leone, Angola and
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This commitment by De Beers is a reflection of its participation in
the multistakeholder Diamond Development Initiative.
De Beers chose Tanzania as the location for the project because the
government asked for its help and the company already has mining
operations in the country.
“It is only through developing and maximising all its natural
resources that a sustainable future for Africa and its people can
be secured,” explained De Beers chairperson Nicky
Oppenheimer.
He concluded, “Diamonds are a key component in the campaign
to make poverty history.” In Botswana alone, mining revenue
accounts for 30% of the countries gross domestic pro-duct. Such
economic growth has allowed these countries to invest heavily in
education and healthcare.