DE BEERS Consolidated Mines is fighting to keep its control over sources of diamonds in Russia and Australia, where it swallows up total diamond production through exclusive buying agreements.
It also plans to prospect in China to make sure no mainland diamonds are about to flood the market and hurt prices.
The company, which produces about half of the world's gem diamonds, and sorts, values and sells about 80 per cent of the world's rough diamond production, keeps a close eye on possible rival sources of diamonds.
It set up the Central Selling Organisation (CSO), which has come under fire as a monopoly.
De Beers argues that the CSO is a good thing for the industry, smoothing out fluctuations which otherwise would force producers to close mines, and would make it impossible to engage in long-term developments.
Alex Barbour, a director of De Beers, said: 'Our argument is that the success of the single-channel market is there for history to see.
