A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 1993. / Since the discovery of diamonds in South Africa, Government has played an active role in the establishment of a local processing industry, aimed at the adding of value to locally mined rough diamonds. This study evaluates the influence of Government support and regulation in the performance of South Africa's diamond industry. Statistics were supplied mainly by the South African Diamond Board, the Minerals Bureau and the departments of Finance, and Trade and Industry. Discussions with prominent diamantaires were also undertaken to contrast statutory reporting with informally sourced facis. South Africa's diamond industry undetperforms, particularly the processing industry which benefits from State support at the expense of the other diamond sectors. Government's indirect support of the processing sector cannot be justified in view of its dismal performance. The entire diamond industry should be deregulaled, and State involvement in the processing sector (with special emphasis on the taxation structure) re-evaluated. / GR 2016

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy / Lack of common understanding of corporate reputation in the diamond industry in South Africa has attracted a lot of interest in this aspect of the mining industry. The recent Marikana Massacre in the platinum belt in the Rustenburg area at Lonmin Mine in 2012, together with on-going debates on resource nationalisation and negative relations between mine communities and diamond mining companies have prompted the call for more research in reputation management in the mining industry in South Africa. The purpose of this research is to define the meaning of corporate reputation in the diamond industry, to understand key perceptions of the diamond industry, to identify key effects of corporate reputation in the diamond industry and to evaluate key management approaches to corporate reputation in the diamond industry from multi-stakeholder perspectives. Mixed methods research methodology was used in this study, comprising quantitative and qualitative data collection and data analysis. Key findings include that there is no one single definition of corporate reputation. Each stakeholder has his/her unique definition which is based on his/her own assessments of the organisation, the past and future actions of the corporation, and their experience and perception of the organisation. Poor relations between mine communities and diamond companies; prospects for the collapse of the Kimberley Process (KP); violent strikes; environmental issues, including rehabilitation of old mines; poverty and high unemployment in the mining communities; failure of BEE transactions in delivering real value to the mine employees and local communities; illegal mining; the rise of synthetic un-natural diamonds and negative perceptions of the diamond industry in South Africa are the current major challenges and risks affecting the diamond industry in South Africa. This study concludes that positive corporate reputation would result in improved investor confidence, higher levels of attracting and retaining top level talent in the organisation, improved attraction of customers, better relations with communities and improved stakeholder relations. The study did not find evidence proving that a positive reputation will result in higher prices for diamond products. It found that corporate reputation management initiatives in the diamond industry are not well understood and, as a result, they are not delivering the full results as expected. ii | P a g e Effective stakeholder relations management with a special focus on community engagement including youth groups’ involvement in the mining towns; targeted social investment programmes with special focus on enterprise development and effective management of industry perceptions are identified as the most critical steps to be adopted in the diamond industry in order to improve its reputation. / GR2018

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: De Beers Marine (Ply) Limited (DBM) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the De Beers group of companies. DBM initially operated as an exploration company, but was pressunsed to transform from a explorative venture to a sustainable and profitable company. This involves operating diamond mining vessels at an unprecedented scale. Project management techniques are used to design, construct and commission these vessels. The problem that DBM is presented with is that its projects are often completed late or under immense pressure to be completed within the allocated time. This study focuses on the performance of these projects from the perspective of scope management to analyse its effect on the outcome of the projects. Literature on project scope management was studied to determine what effective scope management processes should be in place to facilitate a project's success. DBM project data was studied to determine which scope management processes had an effect on DBM project success. The data showed that for the projects that had both quantitative and qualitative information, scope management was highlighted as instrumental in both successful and less successful projects, i.e. in DBM effective scope management contributes to project success. A lack of scope management increases the chances of a project not meeting its required project management parameters. The conclusion is that for DBM projects, there must be a strong focus on upfront scope management processes of initiation, planning and definition. The processes of verification and change control must also be in place and managed well to support the upfront processes.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Diamond mining started in Kimberley in the early 1870s following the discovery of the various diamond bearing kimberlite pipes. Initial open pit mining was replaced by underground mining as the pits went deeper and the last underground mining eventually ceased in 2005 as a result of economic reasons. The mining of these primary resources created a number of tailing resources (previously called dumps) that are scattered all over Kimberley. These resources still contain diamonds as a result of historical inefficient processing technologies. However, each of these resources have unique geological and metallurgical properties because of the differences in the original kimberlites and the different treatment technologies that were used when the tailing resources were deposited. The tailing resources are mined by a fleet of earthmoving equipment and delivered to one of Kimberley Mines‟ five treatment plants for diamond recovery. Each plant is different in terms of treatment capacity, technologies utilised and overall efficiencies. These differences, combined with the geo-metallurgical properties of each individual resource and the hauling distance from the resource to the plant, determine if the specific resource can be treated profitably through that plant. With this array of resources available, Kimberley Mines is in the fortunate position of having flexibility to maximise the Net Present Value (NPV) of the operation. Unfortunately this flexibility also increases the complexity of finding the optimal solution. Mine Planning is currently conducted with a spreadsheet based input – output model but this model is not able to match the resource properties with the plant parameters and this method results in a plan that may be neither practical nor optimal. The model is also very time-consuming and scenario analyses are therefore very limited. This report presents the development of a mixed integer linear programming model to assist with the development of a practical, optimal mine plan. The model is roughly based on a generic model that addresses facility location and processing plant problems as developed by Barbaro & Ramani (1986); however, the model presented in this report includes a more detailed mass balance within the plant and models how the metallurgical properties of the resources affect the mass balances and overall throughputs. The results of the project indicate that the current spreadsheet based Mine Plan is not practical since it violates two mass balance constraints within the Combined Treatment Plant. The newly developed system is used to generate a mining schedule that does not violate any constraints while still delivering the same net present value and overall throughput. The system also illustrates that the plant can improve the annual throughput by 18.2% by changing one screen size. The system also illustrates that only two of the five plants add value and supports management‟s recent decision that the production through the other plants should cease. In summary: The newly developed system generates an optimal, practical mine plan in less than a tenth of the time required for the old spreadsheet based model. The new system can also do various what-if scenarios which the previous model could not answer. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ontginning van diamante in Kimberley het in die vroeë 1870s begin na die ontdekking van verskeie diamanthoudende kimberlietpype. Aanvanklike oopgroefmynbou is later vervang deur ondergrondse metodes soos die myne dieper geword het. Die laaste ondergrondse myne het in 2005 produksie gestaak as gevolg van ekonomiese redes. Die ontginning van hierdie primêre reserwes het gelei tot die ontstaan van verskeie uitskotreserwes (voorheen genoem afvalhope) verspreid oor Kimberley. Hierdie reserwes bevat steeds diamante as gevolg van die historiese oneffektiewe aanlegte. Die reserwes het elkeen egter verskillende geologiese en metallurgiese eienskappe as gevolg van die verskille in die oorspronklike kimberliete en die verskillende herwinningstegnologieë wat in gebruik was toe die uitskotreserwes gegenereer is. Die uitskotreserwes word gemyn deur ‟n vloot grondverskuiwingstoerusting en word afgelewer by een van Kimberley Myne se vyf aanlegte vir diamantherwinning. Elke aanleg is uniek in terme van kapasiteit, tegnologieë in gebruik en algehele effektiwiteit. Hierdie verskille, tesame met die geo-metallurgiese eienskappe van elke reserwe en die vervoerafstand van die reserwe na die aanleg bepaal of die spesifieke reserwe winsgewend deur daardie aanleg geprosesseer kan word. Bogenoemde verskeidenheid van hulpbronne gee aan Kimberley Myne die voordeel van buigsaamheid om die Netto Huidige Waarde (NHW) van die myn te maksimeer. Hierdie buigsaamheid vergroot egter die kompleksiteit om die optimale antwoord te vind. Beplanning word tans met ‟n sigblad gebasseerde invoer – uitvoer model gedoen, maar hierdie model is nie in staat om die reserwes se eienskappe by die aanlegte se parameters aan te pas nie. Hierdie metode genereer dus ‟n plan wat moontlik nie prakties of optimaal is nie. Die model is ook tydrowend en scenario analises is dus baie beperk. Hierdie verslag beskryf die ontwikkeling van ‟n gemengde heeltallige lineêre programmeringsmodel vir die ontwikkeling van ‟n praktiese, optimale produksieplan. Die model is losweg gegrond op ‟n generiese model van Barbaro & Ramani (1986) wat fasiliteit posisionering en aanlegprobleme aanspreek. Die model in hierdie verslag bevat egter ‟n meer gedetailleerde massabalans binne die aanleg en modelleer hoe die metallurgiese eienskappe van die reserwes die massabalanse en die algehele kapasiteite beïnvloed. Die resultate van die projek dui daarop dat die huidige sigblad produksieplan nie prakties is nie aangesien dit twee massabalansbeperkings in die Combined Treatment Plant oorskry. Die nuwe stelsel is gebruik om ‟n produksieskedule te genereer wat nie enige beperkings verbreek nie en wat terselfdertyd die aanvanklike netto huidige waarde en totale produksie ewenaar. Die stelsel wys ook dat die jaarlikse kapasiteit met 18.2% verhoog kan word deur een van die sif-groottes te verander. Die stelsel demonstreer ook dat slegs twee van die vyf aanlegte waarde toevoeg en ondersteun bestuur se onlangse besluit dat die produksie deur die ander aanlegte gestaak behoort te word. Ter samevatting: Die nuwe stelsel genereer ‟n optimale, praktiese produksieplan in minder as ‟n tiende van die tyd benodig vir die ou sigblad model. Die nuwe stelsel kan ook verskeie “Wat sal gebeur indien…” scenario‟s hanteer wat die vorige model nie kon beantwoord nie.