Foundation founded De Beers in 1888 , of the
Rothschild family, funded the development of De Beers of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., issued 1 March 1902 The name 'De Beers' was derived from two
Afrikaner settlers: brothers Diederik Arnoldus de Beer (1825–1878) and Johannes Nicolaas de Beer (1830–1883), who owned a farm named
Vooruitzicht (
Dutch for "prospect" or "outlook") near Zandfontein in the
Boshof District of the
Orange Free State. Diederik and Johannes were direct descendants of the
VOC soldier and later farmer, Matthys Andries de Beer, of
Vaasa, Finland, who had migrated to South Africa in 1699 via
Lübeck. Following the discovery of diamonds on Diederik and Johannes's land, the increasing demands of the British government forced them to sell their farm on 31 July 1871 to merchant Alfred Johnson Ebden (1820–1908) for £6,600.
Vooruitzicht would become the site of the
Big Hole and the De Beers mine, two successful diamond mines. Their name, which was given to one of the mines, subsequently became associated with the company.
Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the
British South Africa Company, got his start by renting water pumps to miners during the
diamond rush that started in 1869, when an 83.5
carat diamond called the '
Star of South Africa' was found at
Hopetown near the
Orange River in South Africa. He invested the profits of this operation into buying up
claims of small mining operators, with his operations soon expanding into a separate mining company. De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed in 1888 by the merger of the companies of
Barney Barnato and Cecil Rhodes. By this time, the company was the sole owner of all diamond mining operations in South Africa. In 1889, Rhodes negotiated a strategic agreement with the London-based Diamond Syndicate, which agreed to purchase a fixed quantity of diamonds at an agreed price, thereby regulating output and maintaining prices. The agreement soon proved to be very successful – for example, during the trade slump of 1891–1892, supply was curtailed to maintain the price. Rhodes was concerned about the break-up of the new monopoly, stating to shareholders in 1896 that the company's "only risk is the sudden discovery of new mines, which human nature will work recklessly to the detriment of us all". Rhodes placed the full resources of the company at the disposal of the defenders, manufacturing
shells, defences, an
armoured train and a gun named
Long Cecil in the company workshops.
Oppenheimer control In 1898, diamonds were discovered on farms near
Pretoria,
Transvaal. One led to the discovery of the
Premier Mine. The Premier Mine was registered in 1902 and the
Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough diamond ever discovered, was found there in 1905. (The Premier Mine was renamed the Cullinan Mine in 2003.) Its
Thomas Cullinan refused to join the De Beers cartel. Instead, the mine started selling to a pair of independent dealers named
Bernard and
Ernest Oppenheimer, thereby weakening the De Beers stranglehold. However, production soon equalled all of the De Beers mines combined. Ernest Oppenheimer was appointed the local agent for the powerful London Syndicate, rising to the position of mayor of Kimberley within 10 years. He understood the core principle that underpinned De Beers's success, stating in 1910 that "common sense tells us that the only way to increase the value of diamonds is to make them scarce, that is to reduce production". after buying shares and being appointed to the board in 1926. During the early 1930s, the company conducted experimental work which in large part pioneered the use of
diamond drills. This was highly preferable to more expensive and rarer carbons previously in use. The
Free State Gold Rush was made possible in part due to this innovation, as the fields required deep drilling to reach
gold-bearing reefs. After Ernest died in November 1957, operation of Anglo and De Beers was passed on to his son,
Harry Oppenheimer. Under Harry, the company expanded to several different countries, including Canada,
Australia,
Malaysia,
Portugal,
Zambia, and
Tanzania. In South Africa, Harry opposed
apartheid, arguing that it hindered economic growth. Despite this, De Beers has been criticized for profiting from the system during the apartheid period. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, De Beers attempted to secretly enter the United States' diamond market, being forced to divest its American assets in 1975 to avoid the risk of violating anti-trust laws. Harry Oppenheimer stepped down as the chairman and director of Anglo-American and De Beers in December 1982.
21st-century changes meeting former De Beers chairman
Nicky Oppenheimer in South Africa in 2006 During the 20th century, De Beers used several methods to leverage its dominant position to influence the international diamond market. In 2000, the De Beers business model changed because of factors such as the decision by producers in Canada and Australia to distribute diamonds outside the De Beers channel, as well as increasingly negative publicity surrounding
blood diamonds, which forced De Beers to protect its image by limiting sales to its own mined products. The combination of a more fragmented and thus more competitive diamond market, increased transparency, and greater
liquidity caused De Beers's market share of rough diamonds to fall from as high as 90% in the 1980s to 29.5% in 2019. Seeing these developing trends, the Oppenheimer family announced in November 2011 its intention to sell its entire 40% stake in De Beers to
Anglo American plc, thereby increasing Anglo American's ownership of the company to 85% (with the remaining 15% owned by the Government of the Republic of Botswana). The transaction was worth £3.2 billion (US$5.1 billion) in cash and ended the Oppenheimer dynasty's 80-year ownership of De Beers. De Beers sold
Kimberley Mines to
Petra Diamonds and
Ekapa Mining in 2016 for $7.2 million. Petra had purchased De Beers' underground mines at Kimberley previously. From 2016 to 2024, the De Beers Company has released a series of "Modern Slavery Statements" to comply with Section 54 of the
United Kingdom's 2015 Modern Slavery Act. In May 2024, Anglo American announced its intention to spin off or sell De Beers. In 2025, De Beers reported holding an inventory of unsold mined diamonds valued at approximately US$2 billion. The company attributed this to a decline in demand for natural diamonds, driven in part by the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds, which have become significantly more affordable. By 2025, lab-grown diamonds were reported to be approximately 90% less expensive than their mined counterparts, compared to a 10% price difference in 2018. In 2000,
Advertising Age magazine named 'A Diamond is Forever' the best advertising slogan of the 20th century. The slogan likely inspired the
James Bond book, film and song title
Diamonds Are Forever. Other successful campaigns include the '
eternity ring' (meant as a symbol of continuing affection and appreciation), the 'trilogy ring' (meant to represent the past, present, and future of a relationship) and the 'right hand ring' (meant to be bought and worn by women as a symbol of independence). De Beers ran television advertisements featuring silhouettes of people wearing diamonds, set to the music of
Palladio by
Karl Jenkins. The campaign, titled "Shadows and Lights", first ran in the first quarter of 1993. The song would later inspire a compilation album,
Diamond Music, released in 1996, which features the
Palladio suite. A 2010 commercial for
Verizon Wireless parodied the De Beers spots. In May 2018, De Beers introduced a new brand of jewelry called "Lightbox" made with
synthetic diamonds in partnership with
Element Six. The synthetic stones started at $200 for a quarter-carat to $800 for a full-carat diamond, about one-tenth the cost of naturally occurring diamonds. The new brand began selling in September 2018, and the stones are produced in
Gresham, Oregon, a $94 million facility using the region's cheap electricity, which opened in 2018 with a capacity for 500,000 rough carats of diamonds per year. With prices of lab-grown diamonds continuing to fall, De Beers announced the discontinuation of the Lightbox brand in May 2025, positioning itself in the luxury
Veblen good space of mined diamonds. ==Operations==