These
over-all magnitudes do not, however, give a completely satisfactory
picture of the problems confronting the diamond industry.39 These figures relate to recorded quantities and recorded values;
allowance must be made for 'black market' production and 'black market'
sales. Next, the figures do not reflect the great preponderance in weight of the Congo production, which in post-war years represented some 60 per cent ofworld output, though only some 15 per cent in value of
world output, due to the great preponderance, in the Congo production,
of industrials, particularly of crushing bort. Altogether, industrials
are estimated at constituting about 80 per cent of world output as a
whole. Moreover, the tendency was for the new sources of
production—French Guinea and the Gold Coast (now Ghana)—to be prolific
producers of industrials rather than of gem stones, though this was not
the case in Tanganyika, where the Williamson Mine had come into full
production. As a consequence, the paradoxical situation arose that at
certain times there was an actual shortage of gem stones and
that increased attention had to be paid to the possibility of finding
new sources of production, while stocks of industrials might be
mounting. The problem was one, then, so far as gem stones are
concerned, of finding new sources of supply, and so far as industrials
are concerned of finding new uses for the expanding supplies.
39 In
the past, the published statistics divided diamond sales into sales of
gem stones and industrials. On 7 April 1961, De Beers Consolidated
Mines issued the following Press announcement:
'Because
a revision of selling procedure introduced as from January 1961 has
invalidated any comparison between current and earlier sales of gem
and industrial diamonds and made any automatic classification of sales
into gem and industrials impossible, it has been decided to discontinue
the practice of announcing the quarterly sales of gem and industrial
stones in subdivisions. In future, only the total net sales of all
classes of diamonds will be announced. . . .
