Word: diamonde
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Worse for De Beers, the glut comes amid growing evidence of big-time diamond smuggling out of the former Soviet Union. As a result, not since 1982, when speculators dumped their diamond stockpiles, has De Beers' legendary grip on the diamond market seemed so shaky...
...immediate cause of the problem is beyond De Beers' control: political instability in some of the planet's richest diamond regions. Although the Angolan drought made alluvial-plain diamonds easier to find, Angola's rush was triggered mainly by the chaotic aftermath of civil war. Thousands of demobilized soldiers with no job prospects began scratching around for easy money. Legislation enacted in November permitting Angolans to trade in uncut diamonds was intended to soak up rough stones that people had illegally hoarded down through the years. Instead, because the move made it vastly easier to unload illegally dug diamonds...
...former Soviet Union, fourth in diamond production, smuggling is on the rise in part because of the breakdown of law and order that accompanied communism's collapse. For years it was an open secret that communist Party and KGB officials pilfered diamonds from mine operations in Yakutia. Now that the old communists have fallen on hard times, millions of dollars' worth of their ill-gotten diamonds appear to be making their way into Western salesrooms. According to Mikhail Gurtovoi, the head of a Russian government anticorruption unit, large batches of illegally acquired Russian diamonds are turning up in Belgium...
...Beers hopes that the new Angolan government that will emerge from last week's elections will see the wisdom of stanching the illegal trade. The main cause for concern remains Russia, because its huge diamond production coincides with deteriorating economic conditions. Russian production in 1991 was an estimated 13 million carats, compared with Angola's 1.5 million. "Angola is like a wasp," says Oke, "but Russia is like a bear stomping around...
...Oppenheimer, 83, whose family built South Africa's De Beers and Anglo American mining empire, came out of retirement and paid a visit to Moscow -- a sign that De Beers is worried and leaving nothing to chance. The company made its fortune on the back of the slogan "A diamond is forever." Now it must put its money where its mouth is to make good on the promise...