Diamond Industry

My name is Jeremy and I will be contributing to this blog periodically as I progress through my Graduate Gemology degree and beyond.

This is Ernest Oppenheimer. He was born in Frankfurt Germany in 1880 and moved to South Africa in 1902 to oversee diamond buying for his company A. Dunkelsbuhler. By 1929, he had become the chairman of De Beers and the AAC (Anglo American Corporation) a major gold mining company. He remained in control of both until his death in 1957 and was largely responsible for the consolidation of the production and sale of diamonds worldwide.

Today the diamond industry has changed significantly from where things were at the beginning of the1900’s. The channels through which diamonds are bought and sold have become more complex and varied. Where De Beers used to control nearly all diamond distribution worldwide, in 2005 their share was closer to 40%.

One significant change that has come about as a result of this shift in influence is the emergence of India and Asia as a major cutting centre. When the Argyle mine in Australia and De Beers began to feud in the 90’s as a result of commitments related to rough diamonds, there was a need to do something with the massive quantities of small ‘brownish’ rough. As a result they turned to India where wages where more affordable and there were a significant number of cutters. These cutters began to cut the very small diamonds (under .05ct) that are common in much of today’s jewellery. Today there are over 100,000 cutters in India and they account for the cutting of over 90% of the worlds rough by weight.

Jewellery | Jeremy February 19, 2010