De Beers ends monopoly

The mining giant De Beers has moved to clean up the diamond trade and its reputation by demanding a guarantee from buyers that they are not dealing in "conflict diamonds" smuggled out of African war zones, news reports said. Diamond manufacturers found to have purchased conflict diamonds will no longer be able to buy from De Beers, which controls 60 percent of the world's uncut diamonds. In a move shifting the company away from its diamond monopoly to focussing on selling the output from its own mines, De Beers is positioning itself as a "supplier of choice", news reports said. "De Beers has already taken steps to ensure that all the diamonds it sells can be confidently labelled as 'conflict-free'," a company statement said.