Although De Beers Group has occasionally been taken to task for its domination of the world diamond market, it can’t be said that the world’s biggest diamond company doesn’t look out for the little guy. In late September 2006, De Beers joined with the government of diamond-rich Tanzania to announce the creation of an aid program for so-called "informal" diamond miners, the 1.3 million poverty-stricken people who pan for diamonds in streams and riverbeds. Although the places they "mine" aren’t the most productive sources for diamonds, rough stones do turn up occasionally — and for those who work the hardest, these rare finds can spell the difference between survival and starvation. Nevertheless, most of these informal miners are barely scraping by well below the poverty line.

The informal miners in Tanzania alone account for perhaps a tenth of the estimated 10 million people worldwide who depend on diamonds for their living. Given their lack of formal organization and regulation, it goes without saying that the diamonds they mine are worth more than they’re paid for them. The lack of regulation means that informal miners often suffer from exploitation at the hands of the middlemen and diamond traders; and lacking any formal organization, it can be difficult for them to stand up for themselves. In the past, informal diamond producers have been forced to mine diamonds used to finance rebel initiatives in countries across the region — fighting that killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. All that’s in the past, given the stricter controls in place these days, but the specter of "blood diamonds" still hangs heavy over the entire African diamond industry.

With the new program proposed by De Beers and the government of Tanzania, the informal miners would, at last, receive fair market value for their finds, not to mention decent healthcare. De Beers plans to spend some $2 million on the initiative. While the diamond company has no direct stake in informal diamond production in Tanzania, it does have interests in the region, and stepped in at the government’s request. In collaboration with several non-governmental organizations, the two entities hope to create a model program that can be expanded to improve the lived of informal workers in other diamond-rich African countries, particularly Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola.

For decades, diamond mining has been a significant part of the national economies of a number of African nations. In Botswana alone, diamonds revenues have helped fueled a 120-fold increase in the standard of living, and currently contribute 30% of that nation’s GDP. The De Beers-Tanzania partnership, which is a part of De Beer’s commitment to the Diamond Development Initiative, seeks to make other African nations as successful as Botswana, which uses its diamond resources to feed and educate its people, provide potable water and healthcare, and expand its infrastructure — all important features of a successful developing nation. While the success of the new program remains to be seen, it’s a bold attempt to develop an ailing nation using the greatest of its national resources. As De Beers’ Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer puts it, "Diamonds are a key component in the campaign to make poverty history."