Diamond geezers... how Londoners took De Beers gem sales back to Africa

Chris Donegan with daughter Emma, wife Sarah and son Ben who moved from London to Botswana
Ian Walker26 November 2015

It is one of the most secure rooms on the planet, holding millions of pounds worth of diamonds. And a group of Londoners are key to the business —which made $6.8 billion (£4.5 billion) last year.

The De Beers Global Sightholders Sales facility, in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, is where all the rough diamonds mined by De Beers — 33 per cent of the world’s supply — are sorted for sale to jewellers such as Tiffany’s and Cartier.

Until 2013, this key process was performed in London — but the City giant’s close ties to the Botswana government meant its move to southern Africa made sense. However, it also required a major relocation of expertise.

One key figure was Chris Donegan, De Beers vice president, US and Belgium global sales, who was based in London and had worked for the company for 32 years.

The De Beers Millenium Star diamond

“I did not think twice about it,” he said. “The diamond business is addictive and as a career man with De Beers, it always seemed like the right move to make.”

Mr Donegan relocated with his wife Sarah and teenage son Ben, while their daughter Emma, 18, remained in the UK studying.

Staff who have moved to Botswana are on three- to five-year contracts and many live on the Teeame Court estate or in the Gaborone suburbs.

Their open-plan office has picture windows looking out over the drought-ravaged countryside, while entry to the building involves X-rays and body searches and there is constant CCTV surveillance.

The job of the workers inside is to “aggregate” the diamonds, which means sorting them by “the four Cs” —carat, colour, cut and clarity.

The carat is the measure of value from mass, the word deriving from the carob seeds against which diamonds were once weighed to check their worth.

All the diamonds from De Beers mines around the world are sorted at the Gaborone centre, before being piled up on desks to be prepared for buyers, known as sightholders.

The giant diamond found this month by the Canadian company Lucara at its Karowe mine in Botswana is 1,111 carats — the second largest ever unearthed.

De Beers experts would use their hi-tech equipment to find the best way to maximise the value of such a “rock”, rather than putting it up for auction. They say it is their treatment of rough diamonds that puts them at the pinnacle of the business.

There are 83 sightholders who visit the facility 10 times a year, and each has different requirements for size and quality.

In the “Big Stone” room, the diamonds are so large they can be sold on an individual basis. One, a perfect stone from Namibia is valued at $500,000 to $600,000 (£397,000). It is in a group of diamonds that will make several million.

They could well go to the United States which has the biggest share of buyers (42 per cent), followed by China (15 per cent). The UK market is described as small but important.

De Beers takes seriously the issue of “blood diamonds” and only sells gems it has mined itself and has a regulated process to guarantee they are responsibly sourced.

Bruce Cleaver, executive head of strategy, said: “We take the provenance of our diamonds very seriously. We have a duty to our customers who require the right ethical standards.

“We want to ensure the process from the work at the mine up until when it is bought. And we audit our customers as well.”

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