By Dave Harcourt •
April 27, 2009
South Africa is a world leader both in terms of mineral resources and in the development of mining technology to extract these resources. The industry there leads the world in many areas, and has had enormous impact on the growth of Africa and on the environment.
1. The Biggest Open Cast, Hand Dug Mine in the World
The Big Hole of Kimberly was dug by hand, using picks and shovels. There is debate about whether the Big Hole is the biggest hand dug open cast mine in the world. Its surface area of 17 hectares (42 acres) and depth of around 200 metres (650 ft) required the excavation of around 25 million tons of earth and rock. This was achieved in 52 years between 1866 and 1914 by a workforce of up to 50,000 miners. What is beyond dispute though is that The Big Hole yielded 2,720 kilograms (6000 lb) of diamonds significantly more than the Jagersfontein mine, the other contender for the title of biggest. After all what better metric is there than output!
By Reenita Malhotra •
April 24, 2009
Tonight on the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® program VENTURE, host Cris Valerio talks to Brilliant Earth Co-Founder Eric Grossberg, about the diamond industry, working with conflict free diamonds, and how social entrepreneurship drives his bottom line.
He talks about how the15 percent drop in diamond prices in the past six months is actually helping his business,
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By Amiel Blajchman •
August 15, 2008
By claiming the Lomonosov Ridge as Russian territory, Russia has claimed the Arctic seabed up until the North Pole, effectively planting a Russian flag on the vast oil, gas, and diamond reserves in this ecologically-sensitive region of the world.
By Leah Edwards •
January 24, 2008
When I had the chance to interview Beth Gerstein, co-founder of Brilliant Earth, I first wanted to ask her how they raised the money to start the company. I figured that retailing gold, platinum and diamond jewelry had to be a capital-intensive business and thought Beth could shed light on how a green entrepreneur can convince investors that there is a large market for products that are sustainably produced.
However, I got a very different story. Brilliant Earth has been entirely boot-strapped, although that adjective doesn’t seem apt for a company that sells beautiful products, has an elegant identity system, and does business via a beautiful website.
Brilliant Earth sells conflict-free diamonds, which are mined in Canada in accordance with environmental laws as well as jewelry made of “renewed” gold and platinum, i.e., recycled metals.
By Brady Swenson •
June 8, 2007
Blood Diamond exposed to the movie-going masses the horrors of the diamond industry's operation in the West African country of Sierra Leone. Four West African countries, Angola, The Congo, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where the diamond trade is bloodiest, produce about 20% (PDF) of the world's rough diamonds. The growing global market for diamonds reached nearly $70 billion dollars in 2005 fueled largely by the insatiable appetite of US consumers who
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