Diamond company says employees are both its strongest and weakest link
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 10/00) - Diamond producers say they have one main focus when it comes to theft.
It isn't high-tech monitoring or intense security. It isn't even organized crime, which they say is the industry's biggest threat.
Diavik said it will be its own employees, who handle the valuable gems at its mine site, that they're watching.
Rough diamonds plucked from the kimberlite pipes, about 100 yards off the shore of Lac de Gras, can be easily concealed but also have the power to easily pay off one's home or other debt.
Diavik painted the picture of employees as guardians of diamonds at its presentation at a professional development seminar on Tuesday. But employees are obviously also the industry's likeliest potential leak.
"A news article told of a 186 carat diamond stolen at a mine in South Africa," said Diavik director of security Steve Goudie.
"He just came across it in the mine. That was a theft of opportunity.
"A contract worker in Australia was caught with several diamonds in a pen. He said it was a joke and the diamonds were not worth very much ... but both cases show there was a problem with security."
Companies such as BHP and Diavik Diamonds do count on their employees to be honest and not easily manipulated.
A main concern related one of the industry's largest threat -- organized crime -- is employee's vulnerability to coercion.
"Ordinary people are working in very extraordinary circumstances," said manager of the RCMP's diamond project Ray Halwas.
He added that enticement of criminals leads to threats.
"They will come back to the individual and say you have committed a crime now and we'll use that against you unless you continue."
Diavik therefore says they want to put a large emphasis on creating a positive team environment within its corporate culture when its mining facility opens in 2003.
Eventually it will employ about 400 people -- people they want to be able to trust.
"We're trying to create an environment where employees feel they have a vested interest in Diavik," Goudie said.
If that doesn't work, the company will use computerized identification cards or implement policies in which certain people are not allowed into the diamond recovery area alone.
It will also use extensive video monitoring systems in conjunction with ID cards to make sure they aren't being used fraudulently.
As well, Diavik plans to implement a 20 to 30 person security department of directors, investigators, officers and trainers.
It will also undergo spot audits.
A low-grade X-ray machine is being looked into by the company, in the case that an employee swallows diamonds, Goudie said at the seminar.
BHP Diamonds uses similar methods.
Director of public affairs, Denise Burlingame, said the company employs about 46 security guards at the mine site at Ekati, about 300 kilometres north-east of Yellowknife.
"We're really happy with the security measures we do have," she said, adding there have not yet been any problems. An airport-type X-ray machine is used there only to monitor employee's belongings since, she said, it is illegal to X-ray individuals.
"Not everyone will be able to work in that type of an environment but we make these decisions when we are determining what job to get into," Goudie said of the tight scrutiny employees will be subjected to.
Regardless of that, he said, the main focus is for Diavik employees to not fall into temptation themselves or be coerced by criminal organizations.
He said making sure employees are happy and involved is the company's best defence.
