SI to stage demo at London shop

EDGAR TSIMANE
Correspondent | Tuesday February 10, 2009 00:00

The British non-governmental organisation (NGO) claims to have written to celebrities who wear Graff diamonds, including Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell and Elizabeth Hurley, asking them to stop wearing the jewels. SI is also targeting the Oscars to prevent celebrities from wearing Graff diamonds.

It claims De Beers pulled out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) after models Iman and Lily Cole refused to continue working with the company.

De Beers has not refuted the allegations. 'While the scale of this project did not fit our future growth strategy, we continue to invest in new exploration ventures throughout Botswana,' De Beers spokesman, Chippo Morapedi, said yesterday.

Laurence Graff, according to SI, owns a nine percent stake in Gem Diamonds.

On May 29, 2007 De Beers sold 50 percent of its stake in Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd ('Gope Exploration') to Gem Diamonds Limited ('Gem'). De Beers' joint venture partner in Gope Exploration was Falconbridge (Explorations) Botswana, which also sold its 50 percent stake in Gope Exploration to Gem.

'The Bushmen face severe water shortages, and one has died of thirst, since the government closed their borehole. Yet the Botswana government, which is in the process of approving Gem's mine, has said that the Bushmen will not be allowed to use any water boreholes drilled for the mine.

Gem Diamonds claims that the Bushmen are in favour of the mine, but the Bushmen have had no independent advice on its probable impact,' a press statement from SI reads in part.

Its director Stephen Corry was quoted a media statement yesterday as saying: 'Having watched the storm of negative publicity surrounding De Beers, Graff should have known better than to buy into this mine. Does it really want to be known as the company that mined its diamonds while the Bushmen died of thirst?'

Gem Diamonds acquired Gope Exploration from De Beers and Xstrata in May 2007 for US $ 34 million. Gope is expected to produce more than one million carats annually at an estimated capital cost of more than US $ 500 million.