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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-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. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

business. It is headquartered in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. 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 as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

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 the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the Indigenous peoples of Africa, oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged fro ...

lands in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. Survival International 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 in

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

, 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 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.

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