A Diamond is Forever... But not the monopoly

De Beers is a company that completely dominates and controls the diamonds, diamond mining, diamond hops, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers operates similarly to the vertical monopolies of the railroad and steel industries. They are active in many areas of mining such as open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea. This gives them the upper hand to control and make their own prices in the market because they are the dominant supplier in the world.

Cecil Rhodes, an English born South African business man, bough the mine owned by the "de beers" brothers in 1880 and it wasn't long before he owned virtually all of the diamond mines in South Africa. In 1888, De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. was formed. They began crafting a monopoly on production and distribution of diamonds. In order to control supply and demand ("price making") he created a scarcity of diamonds. And by the time Rhodes died, De Beers owned around 90% of the world's diamond production and distribution.

Ernest Oppenheimer, owner of a rival diamond producer, essentially bought his way onto the board of De Beers and eventually became the Chairman of the Board. He established exclusive contacts with diamond suppliers and buyers, making it impossible to deal with diamonds outside of De Beers.

 In the 1930's, a decrease in diamond sells caused Henry Oppenheimer, Ernest's son, to begin a campaign to increase the number of diamond engagement and wedding rings. In 1947, he coined the slogan " A Diamond is Forever" which eventually became the companies slogan.  

Due to countries with large stockpiles of diamonds being unhappy with the structure of the De Beers company, in the last decade they have turned their focus to promoting its own brand of diamonds and retail stores. 

In November of 2011, the Oppenheimer family sold 40% of the company to Anglo American and therefore withdrawing the Oppenheimer's family connection to De Beers. 

While they are no longer a pure monopoly, De Beers is still extremely influential in the entirety of the diamond markets, especially Botswana.