De Beers releases 2012 Report to Society

The Report states the company’s increased efforts in sustainability compared to previous year
De Beers releases 2012 Report to Society

The De Beers Group of Companies released its 2012 Report to Society, which is a summary of its performance in operating responsibly and sustainably across the diamond pipeline. The report outlines changes in De Beers’ sustainability strategy resulting from the integration with Anglo American plc group, the Sales Agreement with the Government of the Republic of Botswana and other key developments across the economics, ethics, employees, communities and environment performance areas.

Philippe Mellier, De Beers Group CEO, mentioned that “Our understanding of sustainability is shaped by the issues that matter to the people touched by our product as it travels from our mines through the value chain until it is ultimately given as a gift of love or personal achievement.” He also added: “These issues include the expectation of consumers that the diamonds they purchase have been brought to them in a manner consistent with these values. They also include the objectives of our partner governments and communities to realise in full the social and economic benefits that diamond mining can generate, both during mining operations, and in catalysing socio-economic activity that delivers value long after the diamond resource has been exhausted.”

The Report for 2012 mentioned that De Beers paid US$3.9 billion or 74.9 percent of total diamond sales revenues to stakeholders in Africa, including governments, suppliers, employees, and shareholders. The same was worth US$4.37 billion or 68.4 percent in 2011. Also, 21 percent of rough diamond sales were to Sightholders in producer countries (2011: 20%). This is the equivalent of rough diamond sales totalling US$1.14 billion, out of a total of US$5.5 billion (2011: US$1.3 billion from total sales of US$6.47 billion) . The company spent a total of US$39.3 million as global expenditure on community social investment (the same was worth US$42.6 million in 2011). De Beers continued to manage almost 200,000 hectares of company-owned land, specifically set aside for biodiversity conservation, which is five times more land than its mining area of 40,806 hectares. Mr Mellier concluded that, “In 2013 De Beers will continue efforts to further develop our understanding of how our sustainability leadership position drives value-creation for our business, in turn creating shared value for our stakeholders across the diamond pipeline.


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