Blood diamonds may be a thing of the past, or the the jewelry industry would like us all to believe that, but this doesn't mean there aren't other issues in the diamond world, especially when it comes to mining diamonds. De Beers, long known for its jewelry and diamonds, is dealing with some legal issues concerning its mines in south africa.

Diamonds.net has a report on the situation:

South Africa's Richtersveld community has moved past questioning the government's deal with De Beers regarding Alexkor. The community agreed to push ahead with court action against the government as early as March 5, 2007.

In terms of the agreement between De Beers and South Africa-owned Alexkor, De Beers Consolidated Mines' Namaqualand Mines and Alexkor would become one diamond mining company. De Beers made the announcement on February 9, at which time the company claimed "affected parties" had been fully consulted.

According to Richtersveld community chairman Willem Diergaardt, consultations did not take place and the community learned of the venture through media reports. The state attorney told the community they were not entitled to view details of the agreement with De Beers.

[...] The community valued the final verdict at R1.5 million, with an environmental damage restitution price tag of R900 million. The community is also entitled to rights on future projects it claimed.

Lawyers representing Richtersveld informed the government that if details of the De Beers agreement were not made public by March 2, and the plan was not put on hold pending "disposal, merging or amalgamation" of any of Alexkor's material assets without community consent, they would go to court March 5.