Artisanal miners to benefit from diamond initiative: the new DDI could bring Africa's struggling artisanal diamond miners into the formal sector, with benefits for all. The number affected is around the one-million mark says Priscilla Ross.(Mining)

THE DIAMOND DEVELOPMENT Initiative (DDI) is recognition of the underlying problems of Africa's alluvial diamond operations and its one million artisanal miners. These lie beyond what has not been addressed by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). The KPCS came into effect on 1 January 2003 and required all participating governments--of which there were more than 40, plus those represented by the European Commission--to enact new diamond laws and regulations.

This is a development problem and one with several security dimensions--human, local, national and international. The focus of the DDI will be the creation of a multi-lateral partnership that will allow interested parties to pool their experience and knowledge and to integrate various initiatives that are being developed.

Some of the objectives will allow interested parties to pool their resources. Amongst the objectives of the DDI is a wish to promote better understanding and possible solutions for mining regulation; distribution and marketing channels; organisational aspects of artisanal production; legitimate and transparent distribution channels; organisation among artisanal (small-scale) miners; and free and open markets for artisanally-mined diamonds.

The DDI is important at a macro-economic level. According to Chaim Even-Zohar, a principal of Tacy Ltd, a Tel Aviv-based consultancy specialising in all aspects of the international diamond and jewellery business: "During the past few years the world has seen a shift in the ways money is laundered and terrorism financed, with the movement from banking-based to trade-based systems. These systems serve as parallel methods for transferring money and value around the world."

Annual production

In 2004 annual production of rough diamonds totalled US$10 billion, with Botswana being the largest producer at $2.32 bn, followed by Russia (US$1.98bn), Canada (US$1.4bn) and South Africa (US$1.05bn). Mining is mostly from primary deposits i.e. kimberlite pipes. Countries with large artisanal or mechanised alluvial-production secondary deposits represent some 25-30 per cent of global output and include Angola (US$0.9bn), DR Congo (US$0.9bn), Namibia (US$0.7bn), Sierra Leone, the CA Republic, Guinea, Congo Republic, Tanzania and others. Ian Smillie, writer of authoritative papers on this subject, 'guesstimates' artisanal miners produce at least 10 per cent and perhaps more of the diamonds that go into the jewellery shops of London, Tokyo, Paris and New York. They are an important part of the diamond industry.

In a remarkably short time the Kimberley Process was able to articulate a system for managing and certifying the internal and international trade in rough diamonds. The KPCS remains a work-in-progress. It has been credited with a huge increase in official diamond exports from Sierra Leone and the DRC, and with the ending of all official diamond trade with many countries accused of involvement in conflict diamonds. The initiators of the DDI are De Beers. Global Witness, Partnership Africa Canada, Jeffrey Davidson (Communities and Small-scale Mining Programme) and Martin Rapaport (Rapaport Group of Companies).