Dar Es Salaam — De Beers, the world's leading diamond mining and marketing company producing over 40% of the world's global gem diamonds in over 13 countries, has offered US$2million to improve lives of informal diamond miners in Tanzania.

De Beers also joins the government of Tanzania and several non-governmental organizations in the hope of creating a workable model that can be used to help informal miners in other diamond-producing countries like Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Jonathan Oppenheimer, Director of De Beers, told Business Week that the US$ 2 million would provide artisanal miners with access to fair market pricing and healthcare.

He said that De Beers would be working in partnership with the Tanzanian government in the hope of creating a workable model that can be used to help informal miners.

"De Beers does not have a business interest in informal mining, but we cannot sit idly by and watch millions of African miners and their families suffer," said Oppenheimer.

Informal mining is often unregulated, and workers are frequently exploited by middlemen and rogue traders. These conditions exist across western and central Africa and as a result, nearly 1.3 million informal miners live in total poverty, despite the value of the diamonds they mine.

Mr. Tony Devlin, managing director of Williamson Diamonds Limited, a subsidiary of De Beers Group in Tanzania, told Business Week that the commitment by De Beers reflects its participation in the multi-stakeholder Diamond Development Initiative (DDI).

De Beers chose Tanzania as the location for the project because the government asked for its help, and the company already had mining operations in the country.

Devlin said the project would alleviate poverty and accelerate sustainable socio-economic development in the communities around diamond mining areas, formalise, transform and support artisanal and small-scale mining communities in the Shinyanga region of Tanzania through a multi-stakeholder partnership.

The Partnership comprises the Tanzanian Government, Williamson Diamonds Ltd. (WDL) and the De Beers Family of Companies.

For decades, formal diamond mining has helped fuel economic growth in countries like South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. In Botswana alone, mining revenue accounts for 30% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Such economic growth has allowed these countries to invest heavily in education and healthcare.

De Beers is the world's leading diamond mining and marketing company.