Diamond Wars | Monopolies Aren’t Forever | 6

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the late 1990s and rebel armies in Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo are bankrolling campaigns of mass murder and terror with diamonds. Now, after years of turning a blind eye, the diamond-buying public is starting to notice the bloodshed.

But as the issue of so-called “blood diamonds” rises up the political agenda, De Beers is plotting what might be the boldest move yet in its long history: giving up its quest to control all the world’s diamonds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music.
0:04.8	Download the app today.
0:07.0	Listen or note, this episode contains disturbing descriptions of violence.
0:17.0	Please take care while listening.
0:22.8	It's October 1996, and in the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, more than 100 Indian gem manufacturers
0:29.0	are in a conference suite overlooking the Arabian Sea.
0:32.4	On stage is Gordon Gilchrist, boss of the Australian Diamond Mine, Argyle.
0:37.9	A man in the audience takes a handheld microphone and speaks directly to Gilchrist.
0:42.6	I feel I am caught in a firefight.
0:44.8	Debeers is punishing us for Argyle's actions.
0:48.4	Audience members nod in agreement.
0:50.8	My diamond inventory is worth less than when I bought it, and now my bank is threatening
0:55.8	to cut off my credit.
0:58.1	These are right to be worried.
1:00.1	Four months ago, Argyle divorced Debeers.
1:03.0	The Australian mine had a plan to thrive on its own, to pair its low-grade gemstones
1:07.9	with India's cheap labor to make value-price diamond jewelry for big American retailers
1:12.9	like Kamart.
1:14.5	But now, Argyle hopes merely to survive.
1:18.5	Debeers is gunning for it.
1:20.8	To inflict maximum pain, Debeers dumped $200 million worth of Argyle-grade rough diamonds
1:27.2	on the Indian market.
	...

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