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Source: Daily Mail, LondonNov.迷你倉 08--They've been sold out of London since 1934, but De Beers' diamonds are finally going home.The gem giant, 85pc owned by FTSE 100 miner Anglo-American, has agreed to move its lucrative sales operation from London to a new Diamond Trading Centre (DTC) in Gaborone, Botswana.As of Monday, this is where De Beers' 'sights', the esoteric markets at which its stones are sold, will take place.A quarter of the world's diamonds are mined in this tranquil southern African state. All of the De Beers output ? more than a third of global supply ? is already sorted and valued here.By bringing the sights to Botswana, the government hopes to capture more value from the industry, attracting free-spending traders and creating jobs.In a time-honoured process, 81 'sight holders' ? who hold three-year contracts to buy from De Beers ? will arrive for one of ten annual sights.They will already have been allocated a 'box' worth up to pounds sterling 12m, a sort of Milk Tray assortment of diamonds varying in size, shape, clarity, and colour. If they're happy with their allocation, it will be sent to their cutting and polishing centres in specialist hubs. Chief among them is Surat in India, but also Antwerp, Tel Aviv or New York.N OT all sightholders have welcomed DTC's move away from Charterhouse Street, near London's famous jewel centre in Hatton Garden. Some have grumbled about the more arduous journey, sad to miss out on almost monthly visits to the capital.But Botswana, which owns 15pc of De Beers, has one eye on depleting stocks. Even this country's rich resource will be running low within four or five decades, and it must squeeze out all the economic benefit while it can.For now, though, there is no shortage of supply.Carved into the red-brown earth of the bush lies De Beers' Jwaneng mine, more than a mile long and as deep as the Eiffel Tower. This vast earthwork ? the world's richest diamond mine ? is owned in a 50:50 venture with the government and yields around 13m carats a year.Along with lions, elephants and deadly black mamba snakes, more than 3,500 miners toil away in temperatures of up to 50 degrees.The expensive technology at work is mind-boggling. The largest trucks here can ferry more than 300 tons at a time from the bottom of the pit.Depending on the quality of the diamond seam, known as a pipe, a load of that size can contain 750 carats. That's roughly 1,000 typical engagement rings amid 300 tons of waste rock. The trucks themselves don't come cheap. Each one costs nearly pounds sterling 3m while the wheels alone set De Beers back pounds sterling 190,000 apiece ? more than many Ferraris. And the 225 ton trucks can burn 350 litres of fuel ? enough to fill five Ford Mondeos ? every hour.A planned pit extension will cost nearly pounds sterling 2.5bn but will bring in an estimated pounds sterling 9.5bn of revenue.Given the value of diamonds relative to their size, security at De Beers' pits needs to be airtight. At its Venetia mine, over the border from Jwaneng儲存倉in South Africa, they treat theft with the solemnity of the grave.Should an employee drop something on the floor, they must raise their arms and call for a security guard, who will pick it up for them, usually watched by cameras. This is to prevent a sleight-of-hand ruse allowing a dextrous thief to pocket a stone spotted lying on the ground. There are rewards for handing in any diamond found, up to 60pc of its value. One employee retired in 2005 after stumbling over a mammoth 360 carat stone that was worth millions.At the on-site sorting houses, staff can handle the goods only through thick gloves mounted in transparent screens. On the way out of the mine, everyone must clear a series of security doors and may even face a full-body X-ray before knocking off for the night.Further down the chain, things are just as regimented. From Jwaneng or Venetia, the diamonds are transported under guard to DTC Botswana in Gaborone.This gleaming office is a gem-lover's dream. Thousands of rough diamonds are strewn over the sorting desks, sifted through by staff who are watched by 550 cameras and may not leave the building between 8am and 4pm. Whatever they have to touch is weighed at the beginning of their shift and again at the end.It is a laborious business that can be staggeringly lucrative, but also suffers badly when demand for luxury goods drops. De Beers suffered a 16pc fall in sales to pounds sterling 3.8bn revenue last year as diamond prices fell 12pc, while operating profit tumbled 49pc to pounds sterling 315m.B UT these remain hefty figures for a business that has just a handful of producing mines in South Africa, Botswana and Canada. And with no major diamond discoveries having been made for around 20 years, the scarcity premium placed on diamonds looks likely to survive in the near future.That's why Anglo-American bought out the Oppenheimer family from their 40pc stake in 2011, spending a cool pounds sterling 3.2bn for control of the company.As Anglo boss Mark Cutifani slashes costs following February's bruising pounds sterling 2.5bn write-down on the Brazilian Minas Rio iron ore project, diamond income is set to provide much-needed ballast.And while many African countries have suffered from a 'resource curse', Botswana has as much to gain as Anglo.At Jwaneng, 97pc of 1,800 permanent staff are local, with many more jobs created further down the chain at DTC Botswana and in the regional economy at large. Schools, hospitals and roads are literally paid for with diamonds.As for the environment, De Beers mitigates its environmental impact with thriving game reserves that protect wildlife from poachers thanks in part to the high security attached to diamond mining.As long as De Beers can maintain cordial relations with the governments and communities that permit it to operate, it could yet prove to be the brightest gem Anglo has.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Daily Mail (London, ) Visit the Daily Mail (London, ) at .dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉最平