Mining company De Beers has given qualified support to a bill in the United States Congress that would give consumers the right to know the country of origin of diamonds they buy.
The ‘Carat Act’ Bill, introduced by congressman Tony Hall, aims to allow consumers in the United States to take ethical considerations into account when they buy diamonds above the value of $100.
Criticism has been growing over recent years that revenues raised through diamond mining rights have been used to increase conflict in certain areas, particularly Angola.
De Beers, which is the world’s largest diamond seller, stopped buying diamonds in Angola last year in response to such concerns.
Company spokesman Andrew Lamont told EP: ‘There are immense practical problems involved in keeping tabs on the origin of millions of stones, but we are working quite closely with the United Nations, the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office to look at the whole question of how you can create some sort of paper trail.
‘We have put our scientists at the disposal the UN and we are ready and willing to help in any way.’
A recent report on the West African diamond trade by the Canadian pressure group Partnership Canada Africa called for the creation of an independent diamond standards commission under UN control to establish and monitor codes of conduct on governmental and corporate responsibility in the world diamond industry.
De Beers recently reinforced its attempts to show it is not dealing in areas where fighting is taking place, by announcing that boxes containing uncut diamonds sold at its London-based Central Selling organization would now clearly state that the contents come from legitimate diamond producing companies and have not been sourced from areas where rebel forces have been acting against democratic governments.
Although De Beers has been working closely on social projects such as health care centres with what it regards as the progressive government in Botswana, it has avoided more problematic African states such as the Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe.
