You guys should not confuse South-Africa's diamond industry with the rest of Africa's. My family has been in the diamond mining industry since the early 1930. It's a hard honest way of making a living. 13 hours/day 5days/week. We own 2 excavators, 4 frontend loaders, 2 dump trucks and 2 big generators. All of these to supply our 3 washing machines with diamond rich gravel. The expenses is high, but the reward is sweet!! The diamonds we find gets sold on tender, meaning about 100 buyers from all over the world gets to submit their best prices in order to obtain specific stones. Highest tender gets the loot, that is if we want to sell for that price. I know it works differently in the rest of Africa, but at this moment South-Africa is the leading diamond producer (not including blood diamonds) in the world! Any more questions?
Yea right. If I buy someone a ring they need to be hot! and straight. If anyone wanted to buy you a ring you wouldn't become a lesbian. hahh....luv you sammie...
How is the security for the workers in your company ? How much do you pay the workers? And your company may very well be very good, I dont say that all companies are bad, but in general the diamond industry has exploited their workers and South Africa has skeletons in the closet too.
Its not easy to be a white male in South-Africa. We treat our workers as best we can, but the govnment do anything in their power <and more> to make it as difficult as possible for medium size, white owned companies like us to survive. At the moment we have to have a black partner, owning 52% of the company, without any capital investment from him. We have to pay 8% to the govnment and then the ussual taxes after that. Our diesel account gets upto $20000/month. Wages = $6000/month Basic repairs = $15000 - $30000/month Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, 18% of the income must be paid to the owner of the land we mine on. That means that if we sold diamonds for $160000/month, minus all mentioned above, we make a staggering profit of $11 938. Then atleast once/year we have to replace machinery, costing anything from $100000 - $180000. So don't talk politics to me!
I didnt know that I was talking politics. I know its harder to be white in SA now that before. Joburg is black now and was white before, white people have felt that they have to move from certain areas and so on. But that has nothing to with the question. "At the moment we have to have a black partner, owning 52% of the company, without any capital investment from him." I feel that this sentence is not covering the whole story behind regulations of ownership. I bet that it is possible for a white man to own a company in SA. Anyway, nice to hear that you treat your workers good.