In the 1960s, large numbers of diamonds were discovered that had been washed into the Atlantic Ocean from the Orange River. This discovery led to a flourishing marine diamond industry – and Namibia becoming one of the world's leading diamond-producing countries.
Resources are defined and developed by scanning, mapping and sampling the ocean floor. This, with other parameters, then defines a plan for recovering the diamonds from the sea floor in a sustainable manner.
Marine-based diamond recovery operations production
1.3
million carats in 2019
1.1
million carats in 2020
1.1
million carats in 2021
1.7
million carats in 2022
1.8
million carats in 2023
PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW
It is critical that operations recovering diamonds offshore adhere to best practice standards that address business, social and environmental risks.
The following certification standards are all verified by third parties to demonstrate that marine-based diamond recovery operations comply with strict and robust requirements that assess social and environmental issues, and the implementation of human rights due diligence frameworks.
- Best Practice Principles
- Ensuring that diamonds from DTC have met the highest professional, ethical and technical standards.
- Learn more
Each year, emerging or evolving risks are considered, and appropriate standards are added to the BPP requirements to address these for annual verification.
- RESPONSIBLE JEWELLERY COUNCIL
- Addressing issues including human rights, labour rights, environmental impact, mining operations and product disclosure
- Learn more
ISO 14001 is the international standard that specifies the requirements for an effective environmental management system. It provides a framework that an organisation can follow and subsequently be certified against. Being certified against this standard means an organisation has effectively demonstrated that they are running their organisation in an environmentally, and economically, sustainable manner.
ISO 45001:2018 is an international standard that sets out the requirements for occupational health and safety management. It provides guidance that an organisation can follow to develop their own health and safety framework and subsequently be certified against. Being certified against this standard means an organisation has effectively demonstrated that they have created the safest working conditions possible, has identified hazards and put in place controls to manage them, and has helped reduce workplace accidents and illnesses.
| Date of Last BPP Audit |
BPP Compliant |
Highest Level of Finding |
RJC Certificate # |
RJC Certificate Expiry Date |
| 25th-26th October 2021 |
Yes |
None |
0000 3893
View certificate
|
14th October 2024
|
| ISO 45001:2018 certificate # |
ISO 45001:2018 certificate expiry date |
ISO 14001:2015 certificate # |
ISO 14001:2015 certificate expiry date |
| 40027 |
13 November 2026 |
EMS 631398 |
9 August 2024 |
Social Way Implementation Overview
Social Way 3.0 was launched in January 2020. Given that the marine-based diamond recovery operations do not impact specific host communities in the same manner as land-based mining operations, the majority of the Social Way requirements are not applicable. However, during 2021 the marine-based diamond recovery operations began implementing requirement 3B Incident & Grievance Management and 3C Social & Human Rights Risk & Impact Analysis as part of their existing risk assessment and due diligence processes. In 2022 the marine-based diamond recovery operations also began implementing requirement 3A Stakeholder Engagement.
Learn more about the Social Way.