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Article: Friends again: diamonds. (De Beers diamond cartel is strengthened)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- March 2, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BAD news for young men in love, Russian diamond cutters and the free market: the diamond cartel is back. Last year De Beers, an arm of the Oppenheimer family's South African empire, which runs the cartel, was losing its grip. Now it has re-established it. But for how long?
Last year, diamonds were flooding the market from three sources outside De Beers's control: the American government's strategic stockpile (which it has begun to offload gradually); the Argyle mine in Australia, which is controlled by Britain's RTZ group; and, most important of all, Russia, which produces around a quarter of the world's diamonds. This forced De Beers last July to do the unthinkable ...