Diamonds are Forever?

1. Diamonds are Forever? Case Study of Diamond Mining in Africa and Consumer Demands Group A

2. Diamonds in American Society

3. What do diamonds represent? Love Beauty Money Worth Rarity Marriage Prestige

4. Two Main Points: • Diamonds are not inherently valuable, but have socially constructed meanings • What we think about diamonds, and what diamonds represent are very closely monitored by the diamond industry, and are often solely constructed by that industry.

5. Myth: Diamonds are rare jewels • Fact: Diamonds are abundant • Fact: Diamond corporations use a tactic called “managed scarcity” to limit the number of diamonds on the market, making them appear to be rare, when in fact they are not

6. Why do diamonds represent love and marriage? • Because the industry created this association. • Diamonds are not only a visual indicator of socioeconomic status, but also serve to separate people based on the lines of gender, sexuality, and race… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXHm8TzLzE

7. Marketing of Diamonds • Diamonds have different meanings for men than they do for women

8. Diamond ads foster stereotypes about women • They are shallow • They can be bought • They are both proper, and highly sexual http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebo2T32tHdA

9. Diamonds in the media are consistently worn by heterosexuals • In this way, the diamond industry perpetuates the phenomenon of compulsory heterosexuality

10. Diamonds perpetuate racialized meanings of whiteness WHITE=GOOD

11. Diamonds in Advertising • Diamonds perpetuate a hegemonic notion of what people should look like, and be like • People who wear diamonds in the media are predominantly rich, white, heterosexual, and attractive.

15. The diamond industry may present and perpetuate ridiculous ideals, but its worst offense is not what happened here in the U.S., but the human rights abuses and environmental degradation that it inflicts in places where diamonds are produced…

16. Diamond Mining and the Environment

17. A Brief Geology Lesson • Diamonds are formed deep in the earth and carried upward, amid vast quantities of magma, in very forceful volcanic eruptions.

18. Location of Mines

19. Pipe Mining • The most common type of diamond deposit is known as a primary deposit and usually occurs near a volcanic pathway connecting Earth’s deep mantle to its surface, known as a “pipe” • Pipe mining refers to the extraction of diamonds from volcanic pipes. Typically, a very large area has to be covered. An average of 250 tons of ore must be mined in order to produce a one-carat gem quality polished diamond.

20. Alluvial Mining • Diamonds are also found in secondary or alluvialdeposits: diamond-bearing pipes are subject to natural weathering and erosion and some material washes downhill and downstream, ending up in riverbeds and along existing and ancient shorelines, where loose diamonds tend to accumulate • This process involves the extraction of diamonds intermixed with silt, sand, and gravel along banks and shores of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans.

21. Types of Alluvial Mining • In Sierra Leone the technology involves shovel and pan, with some hand sloshing to gravitate diamond to the bottom of the pan so that it can be sorted out. • Panning is the simplest form of alluvial mining. The miner scoops sand, gravel, and water into a shallow pan and shakes it with a rotary motion to wash out the sand and gravel. Heavy minerals settle to the bottom of the pan. • In order to extract these diamonds from beaches, a wall is built to hold back the surf. Up to 25 meters of sand is bulldozed aside to reach the diamond-bearing level. Once reached, the diamond-bearing earth is removed and transported to screening plants.

22. Alluvial mining by traditional methods continues, as seen here in Sierra Leone.

25. Open-pit Mining • Alluvial mining is also done by the open-pit method. The process involves removing the overlying barren ground, digging up the bearing ground, and then extracting the diamonds. • It occurs where the overburden (surface material covering the valuable deposit) is relatively thin or the material of interest is structurally unsuitable for tunneling.

26. Diagram of Pit

32. Open Pit Mines • Open-pit mines are typically enlarged until the mineral resource is exhausted. • When they are no longer productive for extraction of material, open-pit mines are sometimes converted to landfills for disposal of solid wastes. However, some form of water control is usually required to keep the mine pit from becoming a lake.

33. Environmental Problems • The diversion of rivers to allow for the mining of alluvial diamond deposits. • After the mining is completed, the rivers are not redirected to their original courses which in turn results in the pollution of waters and destruction of surrounding flora and fauna. • The mining activities also degrade the surrounding land: • Increasing atmospheric air pollution • Contaminating surface and ground water • The inhabitants of the region are suffering from sickness and disease related to contaminated drinking water supplies. • Such diseases include dysentery, Malaria, schistosamiases and Biomphalaria pfeiffer. • Increasing soil erosion and leaching • Pollution leads to desertification

35. Rehabilitation • Reclamation plans include many of the following concerns: drainage control, preservation of top soil (so that vegetation can be planted), segregation of waste material, erosion and sediment control, solid waste disposal, and restoration of waste and mine areas. The plan must also consider the effects of vibration (induced by mining, processing, or transport), and impact on surface water and groundwater. • They must save the fill removed from the pit (overburden) to refill pits once mining has ceased

36. Angola • War and debt have sustained environmentally damaging mining techniques • The government feels it has to choose between the environment and profit

37. Small-Scale Mining in Sierra Leone • The environmental impact of small-scale diamond mining activities is severe • After an area is mined the land is left exposed and degraded, unsuitable for farming or any other activity. • Water collects and stagnates in the dug-out areas contributing to health hazards, potentially increasing the incidence of malaria and other water borne diseases. • Mining activities cause heavy siltation in river beds and creeks, which reduces coastal coral and fish populations that feed and breed in it. Toxic wastes in the water sources contaminate marine life making them unfit for human consumption. • Lack of land-ownership traditions enables people to be short-sighted about environmental concerns

38. Diamond mining village in West Africa. Mud brick huts with thatched roof, no electricity or running water.

40. The Ruin of Riches • http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=805019181368051929&q=diamond+mine&hl=en • start at 2:54-3:40

41. Realities of Diamond Mining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqPytAIj9Y

42. The Environmental and Humanitarian Aspects of War "The war is not tribal, and it is not religious. It is simply largely a war over control of diamonds. Little pieces of rock that people around the world like to wear on their fingers and hang from their ears.  As you can see, because of these rocks I no longer have an ear or five of my fingers." - Statement of Muctar Jalloh, 27 year old leader of a group of amputees from Sierra Leone http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2853197294913050281&q=conflict+diamonds&hl=en

43. Diamond Wars • Three major incidents of diamond wars in Africa • Sierra Leone • Angola • Democratic Republic of Congo

44. Sierra Leone • RUF—backed by Liberian government • Revolutionary movement funded through Diamond/Arms trade • Message: Leave control of country to Sierra Leoneans • Responsible for the death of over 75,000 civilians • Displaced 50% of civilian population

45. Attack on Civilian Population • Operation No Living Thing -loot, destroy, kill anything in path • Operation Pay Yourself -roadblocks where possessions are taken

46. RUF’s Human Rights Violations • Human Rights Watch Accounts for countless reported human rights violations • Amputation • Lacerations from Machetes • Gunshot wounds • Gouging of Eyes • Genital Mutilation • Injections with Acid • Beating

47. RUF’s Objective • Fear will force civilians to support the RUF in obtaining full political and military control • Civilians are told to bring amputated limbs to Kabbah government to send a message to leave the country

48. RUF’S Human Rights Violations • Sexual Slavery of Young Women • Abduction and Drugging of Children • Forced Labor • Forced Displacement • Razing and Destruction of Entire Villages • Major Burn Wounds from Explosions

49. Angola • Since mid 1980s MLPA legitimate control of government (Jose dos Santos) • UNITA main oppositional force • UNITA has captured a majority of diamond mines the source for -money -arms -fuel • The best and highest quality diamonds in the world

50. Freelance and Corporate Mining Conflicts • Garimperios: freelance miners • Operation Brilliant: Angolan governmental deportation and murder of freelance workers/smugglers of diamonds • Illegal mining often only jobs available -inhuman working conditions -risks of expulsion, rape, detention, murder, brutally • Perpetrated by Angolan police and security funded by large mining corporations