Mining of Diamonds
After having harvested enough diamonds...
After having acquired a good quantity of jewellery (gems containing investment diamonds) by the exploitation of mines or/and by the purchasing gems from independent local miners against an invoice, the so-called NATIONAL MINERALS AGENCY DIAMOND EXPORTERS PURCHASE VOUCHER containing the license numbers of two parties.
One copy of this invoice is given to the seller and the other to the buyer. As for the 3rd copy, it will be handed over for all necessary controls to the Central Bank and then for the diamonds export.
It is not rare to find diamond gems of big size at one of our three sites. These gemstones become the subject of rigorous expertise, the result of which determines their category: collection and/or jewellery raw stone, investment or simple industrial diamonds.
Export formalities in accordance with the requirements of the Central Bank
At the Central Bank the gems pass a control procedure that allows to sort and classify stones according to their size, color and their purity. Then the experts of the State make an overall evaluation of the lot or lots so as to pay the various export duties.
All this procedure is mentioned and affixed to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme allowing diamonds export in accordance with the international legislation of the diamond-producing countries.
Export in the form of accompanied baggage to our Swiss subsidiary
Packages are ready for the export. A final formality is to be completed at the international airport with the Customs and the Representative of the Ministry of Mines.
Note: the procedure is different from the gold because it is subject not only to the diamond export formalities but also to the Kimberly process that allows a complete traceability of its values.
The Kimberley Process as a method for combating "blood diamonds"
It was in order to combat the financing of conflicts through the illicit trade of diamonds – such as the civil war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002 – that about 55 countries adopted the Kimberley Process in 2003 as an international certification scheme for rough diamonds. It sets out very strict procedures to ensure the traceability of gemstones from their mining to their following processing.
In general, the results of the Kimberley Process are rather encouraging. Conflict diamonds are virtually unavailable on the market. At the same time the French BRGM (Geological Research Mining Bureau) has managed to put in place global statistics validated according to the volumes of exported diamonds and their values. The problem that remains is the traceability of the rough diamond because there may be leaks between the state of mining and that one of shaping/cutting with more than ten intermediaries…