Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, was a diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.
Ernest Oppenheimer (right) visiting a diamond factory (Amsterdam, Dec. 1945)
The De Beers Group is a South African- British corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond inscription and grading services, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial and coastal mining. It operates in 35 countries with mining taking place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Canada. It also has an artisanal mining business, Gemfair, which operates in Sierra Leone.
DeBeers store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California - 2008
Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers in 1888
Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, of the Rothschild family, funded the development of De Beers
Preference share of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., issued 1 March 1902