(GLOBALRESEARCH) “Blood Diamonds” and Israel’s Diamond Export Industry
By Sean Clinton
Global Research, December 20, 2013
Self-regulation has failed; civil society must act to end the trade in all blood diamonds. In November, members of the Kimberley Process (KP), meeting in plenary in South Africa, squandered what was probably their last good opportunity to ban the sale of all blood diamonds, including cut and polished blood diamonds which are an important source of funding for the nuclear armed regime in Israel which stands accused of the crime of apartheid, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The governments with a vested interest in the diamond industry, that set up and control the KP, failed to amend the definition of a “conflict diamond” which is restricted to “rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments”. All other diamonds associated with human rights violations evade the KP regulations.
The failure was well flagged in advance as key stakeholders, including South Africa which chaired the KP in 2013, had voiced opposition to reforms that would broaden the remit of the KP to embargo diamonds associated with human rights violations by government forces.
Some jewellers refuse to sell diamonds sourced in the Marange area of Zimbabwe where government forces are reported to have killed 200 miners. However, most if not all, of the worlds leading jewellers sell diamonds processed in Israel where the industry generates about $1 billion annually for the Israeli military which is guilty of grievous human rights violations in Palestine .
With the KP chair passed to China for 2014, and Angola in line for 2015, no one believes they will implement the changes necessary to ban the trade in all blood diamonds.
Corporate Posturing
Corporate social responsibility statements – the moral beacons of wannabe ethically progressive companies – amount to little more than window-dressing unless they are supported by rigorous enforcement. No amount of charitable support for a company’s favourite worthy causes can mitigate, directly or indirectly, providing a revenue stream for rogue regimes guilty of gross human rights violations.
Anglo American plc owns 85% of De Beers making it one of the worlds leading diamond companies with interests at all stages of the supply pipe from mining to retail. De Beers promote their own “Forevermark” diamonds many of which are crafted in Israel . Their promotional literature claims “Forevermark is committed to upholding the highest business, social and environmental standards and practices across its and its partners businesses”.
Anglo American’s Sustainable Development Policy stipulates that suppliers are expected to uphold “fundamental human rights and fair labour practices, in line with internationally recognised standards”. Suppliers must also
“oppose corruption, bribery, fraud…. and must not tolerate any form of money laundering or participate in other illegal incentives in business”.
Despite this, De Beers continues to sell diamonds crafted in Israel even though the Israeli diamond industry is notorious for discrimination in the workplace against non-Jews – a fact confirmed by data from the Israeli Bureau of Statistics and a recent government-funded initiative to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to take up employment in the diamond industry without a similar initiative for non-Jews. Furthermore, although authorities uncovered the “world’s largest illegal bank”, involving fraudulent trading worth billions of shekels, in the Israeli Diamond Exchange in 2012, Anglo American continues trading with Israeli diamond companies.
Anglo American’s failure to abide by their own standards exposes their hypocrisy – a double-standard that permeates the jewellery industry when it comes to blood diamonds from Israel .
The Steinmetz Diamond Group, one of Tiffany’s biggest suppliers and a “unique partner” of Sotheby’s Diamonds, through the Steinmetz Foundation, funds and supports a Unit of the Givati Brigade of the Israeli military. The Givati Brigade is guilty of the massacre of at least 21 members of the Samouni family in Gaza – a war crime documented by the UNHRC and other human rights organisations.
Other world-leading jewellers including Harry Winston, Cartier, Ritani, Blue Nile, Zales, Brilliant Earth, Graff Diamonds, Chow Tai Fook, Chopard and many more, sell diamonds from Israel which are tarnished with Palestinian blood – one of the most recent victim being a 15 year old child, Wajih Wajdi al-Ramahi, shot in the back and killed by the Givati Brigade on 7th December. He was the 26th Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli military this year.
The imperative for all businesses to respect human rights and ensure their business relationships are not contributing to adverse human rights impacts is a well established tenet affirmed in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the UN Global Compact, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The fact that the diamond industry, which accounted for 31.2% of Israel ’s manufacturing exports in 2011, is a very significant source of revenue for the regime in Israel means jewellers that sell diamonds processed in Israel help fund the commission of war crimes and suspected crimes against humanity.
Shareholders of companies that sell diamonds linked to atrocities and bloodshed are exposed to financial and legal hazard. The fraudulent misrepresentation of such diamonds as conflict-free leaves jewellers open to challenge by patrons angered by the fact that diamonds they purchased in good faith are de-facto blood diamonds. Companies complicit in human rights violations may be liable for reparations, which, in the case of victims of Israeli violence in Palestine , could amount to billions of dollars.
Despite Israel ’s record as a serial human rights offender and it’s nuclear weapons stockpile which it refuses to submit to international regulation, the leaders of the global diamond industry continue to give Israel refuge in the KP tent.
Consumer power
If consumers are to have confidence in the ethical credentials of diamonds civil society needs to regain the initiative. This can be done by putting the jewellery industry under the spotlight and demanding that jewellers guarantee the diamonds they sell are not a source of funding for, or in any way associated with, serious human rights violations – i.e. they are not blood diamonds.
As cut and polished blood diamonds from Israel legally enter the diamond market in vast quantities (50% of the US market), diamond buyers should demand to know where a diamond was sourced, cut and polished if they want to avoid buying a blood diamond.
Diamond buyers should not allow jewellers to fob them off with assurances about “conflict diamonds” – the sacrificial offering which only encompasses rough diamonds that fund rebel violence against legitimate governments. This distracts from, and blinds consumers to, the extensive trade in cut and polished blood diamonds which continues unchecked and largely unreported by media.
“Ethically sourced” are some of the buzz words hammered into the conscience of diamond buyers. Rough diamonds at source represent but a small fraction of the value of the cut and polished diamonds sold by jewellers. Ethically sourced diamonds can still be blood diamonds if revenue they generate after sourcing is used to fund human rights violations. “The “ethically sourced” pitch is a scam – it offers zero protection from blood diamonds.
Another example of the duplicity of the jewellery industry is the widespread abuse of the term conflict-free. This is part of a bogus System of Warranties introduced by the World Diamond Council which allows sellers to self-certify diamonds as conflict-free based on the fact that they are in compliance with the discredited Kimberley Process which gives legal cover to blood diamonds that fund government forces.
Sean Clinton is a human rights activists from Ireland with a particular interest in Israel/Palestine and the role diamonds play in funding the Zionist project in Palestine . He has authored several articles about the double-standard in the diamond industry which facilitates the trade in cut and polished blood diamonds.
Labels: ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, DEBEERS, DIAMONDS, ISRAEL
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(NEWZIMBABWE, REUTERS) Amplats cuts 6,000 jobs in South Africa
11/05/2013 00:00:00
by Reuters
COMMENT - In Zimbabwe, the land reform movement had a huge shot in the arm from all the people who lost their jobs because of the IMF/World Bank's structural adjustment program (ESAP). If many people in South Africa lose their jobs, they may have no alternative except to get land. - MrK
ANGLO American Platinum said on Friday it would cut 6,000 South African mining jobs, fewer than half the 14,000 initially proposed, as it tries to restore profits without provoking a backlash from the government and restive unions.
The world's top platinum producer, a unit of Anglo American, added it would also keep open one of four shafts slated for closure near the platinum belt city of Rustenburg.
Amplats aims to slash platinum production by 10 percent or 250,000 ounces this year, equal to 4.5 percent of global output. Another 100,000 ounces will go in the medium term.
Under an original plan announced in January, it aimed to cut output by 400,000 ounces. The reduced job losses are likely to soften the blow for the African National Congress (ANC) government, which faces an election next year, but it remains to be seen if it appeases the anger of powerful local unions.
"Everyone is surprised. We were not expecting any retrenchment at all. We can't allow this," Sphamandla Makhanya, a worker committee member at Amplats in Rustenburg told Reuters.
"But before we do anything, we are going to have a mass meeting with the workers to decide what to do next."
For Amplats, reining in costs and cutting output to underpin the price of platinum, used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in vehicles, is crucial to getting back to profit.
The company said it would now aim to produce 2.2 to 2.4 million ounces a year, up from the 2.1 to 2.3 million ounces targeted in the original plan. The revisions should deliver 3.8 billion rand ($423 million) in savings by 2015.
"This is a significant step back to where we were and it doesn't feel like it addresses the radical problem of oversupply of material, weak or deteriorating demand environment," said analyst Paul Gait of Sanford Bernstein in London.
"The positive is this is an undoubted improvement from the kind of announcement we used to have from Anglo Platinum, which was a blithe disregard for market fundamentals, the cost base of their production - and a single minded focus on producing."
Amplats' shares extended losses on the day to be almost 3 percent lower in mid-afternoon trade in Johannesburg.
Sources told Reuters last week the plan would be watered down after talks with the government.
Chief Executive Chris Griffith said the company would discuss it with unions over the next two to three months.
He signaled the jobs target could be reached over time, saying on a call with analysts the company would look at reducing numbers by as much as 3,000 to 4,000 a year through attrition and would consider proposing early retirement for 1,500 employees over the age of 55.
Some older workers around Rustenburg on Friday said they were ready to hang up their tools.
Dressed in white overalls, Karel Mokgoatsi, a rock driller at Khomanani, one of the affected mines, said: "For others this will be bad news but for me it is good news. I am 60 years old and I am ready to go and have some rest."
Vow to fight
Hours before the announcement, activists from the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in Rustenburg said they would not tolerate any job losses.
"Where will 6,000 people in this economy go? They will engage in criminality," said Simon Hlongwane, an AMCU branch secretary at Amplats. "We as AMCU stand ready to fight."
Social tensions are running high after violence rooted in a labor turf war between AMCU and the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) killed more than 50 people last year and provoked illegal strikes that hit production.
The unrest was a major reason why Amplats suffered its first loss last year. But with unemployment at more than 25 percent, the government has taken a strong line with Amplats.
The average South African mineworker has eight dependants, so the social and political consequences even of reduced lay-offs will be far reaching.
AMCU miners briefly closed several mines when the initial Amplats plan was unveiled in January. Its leaders said on Thursday they would not back such wildcat strike action.
AMCU emerged as the dominant union in the platinum shafts after it poached tens of thousands of disgruntled members from NUM, a political ally of the ruling African National Congress.
The union power struggle explains why the ANC and the government have dug in on the proposed Amplats cuts, a striking contrast to the past when the gold industry was allowed to cut tens of thousands of jobs to remain viable.
General elections are due next year, and for the ANC, the union war means it has lost tens of thousands of potential voters and their many dependants as the NUM is a vehicle for campaigning and getting out the working class vote.
Labels: AMPLATS, ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, JOBS, PLATINUM
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COMMENT - De Beers was founded in 1887 by NM Rothschild &
Sons, which was also funding Cecil John Rhodes at the time. They also funded Standard Chartered Bank (STANCHART). Anglo-American Corporation was founded by J.P. Morgan and sir Ernest Oppenheimer, whose family remained the face of De Beers throughout the 20th century. Anglo-American De Beers is jointly owned through swapped shares - at one point the ratio was that 33% of Anglo shares were owned by De Beers, and 33% of De Beers shares were owned by Anglo.
For Zambia's mining industry to be foreign owned is a direct assault on national sovereignty.
(DAILY MAIL ZM) Anglo American team explores for oil
Posted by online editor on Mar 25th, 2013
Anglo America partnersBy CYNTHIA MWALE in Chavuma
A TEAM from Anglo-American Plc has this month explored for oil and minerals in North-Western province following the expression of interest to invest in the area.
The London-based mining giant is also interested to set up a mine in Chavuma’s Kahongo area after Government granted a large-scale prospecting mining licence.
Both Zambezi district commissioner Catherine Mukuma and Chavuma district commissioner Chipawa Chipawa confirmed in separate interviews in Chavuma that the team was in the province on March 14, 2013.
Ms Mukuma said the investors have shown interest in exploring oil in Zambezi, which shares borders with oil-rich Angola.
She said the company has also indicated the presence of copper in the area.
“We had some investors that came and approached our office from Anglo-American. They have also given us interest to deal in Zambezi [in] exploring oil and copper exploration that is in Nyakulenga and west bank in Chief Impidi,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Chipawa said the investors confirmed the abundance of copper deposits in the area and are expected back in the country next month.
The investors have been given the licences to explore copper, platinum, gold, cobalt, zinc and lead.
“Just recently, we received people [investors] that came to do mineral explorations, Anglo-America Corporation, they were in the district.
They are coming back in April. There is a place where they have identified that their are minerals such as platinum, gold and cobalt, zinc and lead.
So they are very much interested in opening up a mine in this district [Chavuma] and that is Kalongo area as you go to Zambezi. So we will rely so much on that because they had shown much interest in coming here especially that the road network is conducive,” he said.
Mr Chipawa said the investors have taken samples for testing, adding that, “They [investors] want to come and ground in April. They have got the licence for exploration and what is remaining is to come and start the works.”
Two months ago, Government issue a prospecting large-scale mining licence to Anglo-American Plc to carry out exploration works in the province.
Labels: ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, CATHERINE MUKUMA, CHIEF IMPIDI, CHIPIWA CHIPIWA, DEBEERS, NORTWESTERN PROVINCE, OIL
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Robbing miners to pay robber barons
In untransformed economic structures — as they exist in the mines — apartheid is alive and kicking.
For all the reasons we can give about the “illegal” strikes and the lawful correctness of the mining houses to fire the workers, this is part of an injustice that reigns supreme in our beautiful land.
We all know that if economic inequality persists in South Africa, this land will not know peace. Much as we want to believe that apartheid is dead – and much progress has been made in the last 22 years since the release of Nelson Mandela from prison – it is unavoidable to conclude that it’s not been buried.
The mining sector promotes a social structure where too few have everything and too many suffer. How do we justify a chief executive earning more than R50 million a year while many workers take home less than R200 000 a year?
We have to challenge practices and attitudes that not only compromise the ideals that so many sacrificed their lives for but which make each and every one of us complicit in perpetuating injustice and inequality.
There is absolutely nothing exemplary or aligned to Constitutional values in how the leaders and managers in the mines are handling the crisis. Yes they have all the money to take issues to the highest courts in the land to defend and protect the perpetuation of economic injustice, exploitation and inequality and perhaps win but it does not make it morally right. We have to admit that the miners are not only paid a pittance – despite the story that they are the highest paid in the variegated sectors – but condemned to live in conditions fit for pigs.
Many miners live in degrading and dehumanising conditions. This is a fact that many people conveniently forget. As for those who say they have the best salaries, it would be best for them to sacrifice what they have to not only live in those conditions but take less than R10 000 a month to feed an extended family caught in the pincer grasp of poverty and unemployment.
It is easy to point to the Constitution to say apartheid is dead, whatever that means. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The conditions under which miners live have not changed much from the late 1940s when my late father left KwaZulu at 17 years of age to seek his fortune and fame, which he never found. It’s time we spoke the truth about the hell on Earth the mining sector condemns African men, women, children and families to.
If South Africa is to be a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society based on justice and equality as espoused in the Constitution, it would be easier to say we have made progress if miners, for instance, had their dignity and self-respect restored. We can only judge a society by the way it treats is lowest workers.
When we see that miners – who are the backbone of this economy – live in and are treated like sub-humans by companies they give their lives for, this reveals not only the apartheid injustice that reigns supreme in the land but also the untruth of our claim to be an exemplary society in the continent and world. Today we are the most unequal society on Earth. We need to honestly and openly deal with what is going on in the mining, transport, manufacturing and other sectors.
We still hold the promise to be the best human experiment on non-racial and democratic living based on justice and equality.
Nobody was born with rights to own what is in the bosom of Mother Africa.
Not everyone will live in a mansion or drive a BMW but it is possible to live a decent and dignified life with basic amenities. It’s time something radical was done for the miners who have been oppressed, exploited and abused ever since gold and diamonds were discovered in the 1870s.
Labels: ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, DEBEERS, MINING
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Anglo's hot seat up for grabs
02 Nov 2012 07:39 - Lynley Donnelly
But with so many risks beyond their control, the one question is, who would want to take up Cynthia Carroll's position as Anglo American's CEO?
While the market is awash with speculation over who should replace Carroll it is clear that her successor faces a tough task, particularly in terms of stabilising the company's South African operations.
Susan Shabangu, minister of mineral resources, said she hoped a South African would be appointed after Carroll resigned last week. This chimes neatly with the Public Investment Corporation's call for greater representation of emerging markets on the Anglo American board.
But an industry insider, who did not want to be named, said it remained to be seen whether any chief executive would want to step up to the plate given the challenges Anglo faces, especially in South Africa.
More than a third of Anglo's assets are based in South Africa. They make up more than half of the group's profits and include Anglo Platinum (Amplats) and Kumba Iron Ore. The local mining sector has been pummelled by violent labour unrest and faces uncertainties as a result of the ongoing debate in the ruling ANC over state intervention in the industry. "The question is, would anyone be keen [on the job] given the ratio of assets exposed to risks that are outside their control?" the source said.
Besides that, the long-standing oversupply in the platinum group metals market means that whoever takes the job has difficult decisions to make in terms of the embattled Amplats. This included rationalising underperforming operations and possible retrenchments at a time when this would be "politically very difficult" to do, the source said.
Finding an individual with a rare blend of extensive commodities experience, the boardroom savvy to inspire international investor confidence and the political cachet to navigate South Africa's unique nexus of business and politics will not be easy. There has been extensive speculation about potential candidates. Chief among them is local-born Mick Davis, chief executive of Xstrata, which is negotiating a merger with commodities trader Glencore.
Previously tipped to head the merged company, Davis is now widely expected to lose out to Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg, which means he could be available for the post.
Depending on how the planned merger between Xstrata and Glencore unfolds – shareholders still have to approve the deal – speculation is on the rise that the merged giant could make a bid for Anglo.
Kobus Nell, analyst at Stanlib, said should the Glencore-Xstrata merger be successful it was likely that Anglo's South African assets would be unbundled and Davis would be first in line to head the entity.
Although Xstrata's performance had not been stellar when benchmarked against its peers, Davis had experience working with assets that were not necessarily the "best in class", Nell said. Anglo's portfolio, formerly world-class and relatively easy to manage, had been left to deteriorate over time, which suggested that someone with Davis's expertise could benefit the company, he said.
Other names doing the rounds include BHP Billiton's former chief financial officer, Alex Vanselow, and Chris Griffith, newly appointed head of Amplats.
Nell said that, given perceptions of Anglo as an "old boys club with a lot of fat on the table", there appeared to be a great deal of enthusiasm for someone such as Vanselow, who could introduce some of the BHP Billiton management culture to Anglo. But, Nell said, he was not a local and lacked South African exposure, which could count against him.
Peter Major, mining analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions, questioned whether Davis would be an appropriate choice for Anglo. Whoever took the helm would need to be adept at managing relations with South African role players such as the government and labour unions, he said.
Davis is from South Africa, but his ambitions have been constrained on home soil before. A former financial director of Eskom, he left the utility in 1994 after it became clear he would not get the top job.
Major said AngloGold Ashanti's Mark Cutifani was closer to what the company needed, given his record of hauling the gold miner up by its bootstraps. "He took over the biggest mess in mining and fixed it," he said.
Although not native to South Africa, Cutifani lived in the country and was respected and trusted by the authorities and labour alike, Major said.
To Carroll's credit, she spent a great deal of time building relationships with the governments of countries in which Anglo operates and had seen Anglo through the transfer of old-order mining rights to new-order rights under South Africa's new legislative regime, Major said.
Nevertheless, under her stewardship Anglo's share price had plummeted by 35% to 40%, Major said, and profitability was under strain.
Vanselow is touted as a man who could turn this around. He is competent and has experience of a multinational, diversified giant that has performed well in recent years.
However, a good deal of BHP Billiton's success could be attributed to good timing, Major said. Very few of the major deals that its chief, Marius Kloppers, planned went ahead, most famously the bid for Rio Tinto, and the largest one that has gone through has already been written down substantially.
Major said the failure to conclude many big deals had worked in the mining giant's favour, because the commodities cycle had slowed down and mining shares the world over had fallen substantially, mainly on the back of the global recession.
Given the dire state of Anglo American's most important asset, Amplats, Major said it was important that Griffith remain there. It would give him the opportunity to double the market capitalisation of a company with more than $1-trillion in "metals in the ground".
Two female bosses left
Anglo American's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, is stepping down after months of pressure from shareholders and amid wildcat strikes in South Africa.
This will leave only two female bosses in FTSE 100 companies – Angela Ahrendts at fashion group Burberry and Alison Cooper at Imperial Tobacco.
United States-born Carroll, now 55, became the first non-South African, the first woman and the first outsider to take the reins at Anglo when she became chief executive in March 2007. Carroll will stay in the job until a successor is found, which could take up to nine months.
Potential candidates include Alex Vanselow, the Brazilian former chief financial officer of BHP Billiton; Aaron Regent, former boss of Barrick Gold; and Mick Davis, South African-born outgoing chief executive of Xstrata.
Anglo's chairperson, Sir John Parker, said the company would conduct a global search but "could not afford Davis".
One of Anglo's largest shareholders, South Africa's Public Investment Corporation, said the company had missed opportunities in Africa and criticised Carroll's "poor decision making". It called for a swift replacement.
Carroll has been under pressure since her appointment. Some investors were unhappy about the company's share performance and Anglo's exposure to South Africa, where a series of mining disputes have hit output. Anglo American Platinum, a subsidiary, sacked 12000 workers in early October.
Carroll said: "It is a very difficult decision to leave, but next year I will be entering my seventh year as chief executive and I feel that the time will be right to hand over to a successor who can build on the strong foundations we have created."
Parker dismissed suggestions that Carroll had been forced out by shareholders and said the decision to leave was her own. – Julia Kollewe, © Guardian News & Media 2012
Labels: ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, CYNTHIA CARROLL, DEBEERS
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Market responds positively to Carroll's resignation
26 Oct 2012 10:41 - Lisa Steyn
South Africa's markets have welcomed news that Anglo American's chief executive Cynthia Carroll has stepped down, with stock shooting up 1.8%. In a statement, the company said Carroll – at the helm of Anglo America since January 2007 – led the group through the global financial crisis when it achieved record profits in 2008 and again in 2011.
"The board is enormously grateful to Cynthia for her dedication, her hard work and all she has achieved."
But South African platinum analysts say Carroll's resignation is cause to celebrate.
"She has really blown it ... she was probably pushed out," remarked one analyst who asked not to be named.
The key areas of unhappiness around Carroll's leadership are said to include:
* The company's underperformance relative to its peers such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale.
* A high profile dispute where Anglo American Sur, its copper mining operation in Chile, fought over assets with Codelco – Chile's state-owned mining group.
* And iron ore project in Brazil, MMX Minas-Rio, which Anglo bought into but has been plagued by delays and high costs.
* Underperformance of the company's South African operations – especially Anglo Platinum.
But, in a statement, Caroll said she was stepping down simply because the time is right to do so.
"It is a very difficult decision to leave but next year I will be entering my seventh year as chief executive and I feel that the time will be right to hand over to a successor who can build further on the strong foundations we have created," she said.
Peter Major, platinum analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions said although Carroll had made mistakes, she was still a positive influence.
"Cynthia made some errors – mainly embarking on big acquisitions at the top of the cycle. Still, she performed better than Xstrata," he said.
Anglo American said: "Cynthia will remain in her post until a successor has been appointed and an appropriate transition has taken place".
Important to consider, said one analyst, was the new chief executive's attitude toward the company's South African operations and whether it was viable to continue them.
The process of recruiting Carroll's successor will commence immediately and will be led by Anglo American chairperson, Sir John Parker.
In stepping down, Carroll will also relinquish her roles as chairperson of Anglo American Platinum and De Beers.
Labels: ANGLO AMERICAN CORPORATION, CYNTHIA CARROLL, DEBEERS
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