Gem Diamonds is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-based global

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

business. It is headquartered in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. In 2017, the company generated a profit of $20.8 million.

History

The business was founded by Clifford Elphick in July 2005. The company acquired Letšeng diamond mine in 2006, and has since found five of the 20 largest known white gem quality diamonds, elevating the mine to the highest dollar-per-carat

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known to be the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an diamond called the Star of ...

diamond operation in the world.Jamasmie, Cecilia
"Gem Diamonds shares on fire as miner finds 910-carat rock", ''Mining.com'', January 15, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018. The company was first listed on the

in 2007. In 2007, the company began diamond prospecting on traditional

Bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...

lands in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of indigenous and/or tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal peopl ...

alleged that the company had not carried out sufficient consultation with the Bushmen, many of whom have been forced from their homes. Construction of the first phase of a mine, Ghaghoo, located 45 km within the Eastern border of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve began in 2011. It is a controversial matter as the government of Botswana has allowed for mining exploration and construction within a game reserve originally intended for the Bushmen and the wildlife they subsist on. While one cannot directly prove the government's intentions, a year before this exploration began the government started the forced removal of the Bushmen from their lands.

Significant gem discoveries

In 2006, the company announced that it had found a diamond of at the

Letseng diamond mine The Letšeng Diamond Mine, found in the landlocked Southern African kingdom of Lesotho, is owned by Gem Diamonds, Ltd. and the government of Lesotho, and at an elevation of 3,100 m (10,000 ft) it is the world's highest diamond m ...

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

, which became known as the Lesotho Promise. In January 2018, a larger stone was discovered at Letseng, measuring — the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found. Named the Lesotho Legend, the gem sold in

Antwerp, Belgium Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

to Samir Gems on 12 March 2018 for $40 million. In March 2018, the company announced recovery of its seventh diamond over 100 carats at Letseng during the first quarter of 2018, a "top white colour Type IIa diamond," measured at .Gem Diamonds
"RECOVERY OF 169 CARAT DIAMOND" (Gem press release), March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018. Several of Gem Diamond's significant finds in Lesotho have been purchased by

Graff Diamonds Graff is a British multinational jeweller based in London. It was founded by British jeweller Laurence Graff in 1960. A vertically integrated company, Graff operations comprise the design, manufacture and retail distribution of jewellery and watc ...

Operations

The Company has mines in the following locations: *

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Non-renewable resource companies established in 2005 Diamond mining companies Companies based in the City of Westminster British companies established in 2005

History

Significant gem discoveries

Operations

See also

References

External links