Element Six (E6) is a subsidiary of De Beers and the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of industrial Diamond supermaterials. Element Six operates globally with its head office registered in Luxembourg, and primary manufacturing facilities in China, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa and the UK.

For over 50 years, the core business has remained the synthesis and processing of industrial Diamond supermaterials, a term which includes manufactured industrial diamond and other materials with similar properties such as Silicon Carbide Diamond and Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN).  While Diamond is well known as the planet’s hardest known material it has many extreme properties and is one of the most useful and remarkable materials. It is from carbon therefore, the sixth element of the periodic table, that the business takes its name: Element Six.

Element Six’s Mission is to deliver extreme performance for end users through innovative Diamond solutions.  E6 focuses on close strategic development partnerships with customers to deliver customised, innovative high performance products.  The business consistently strives to provide excellent customer service and continuous productivity enhancement.

Element Six is made up of two businesses; Technologies, which is 100% owned by De Beers, and Abrasives, which is 60% owned by De Beers with Umicore, a major global materials group, owning the remaining 40%.

The Abrasives business encompasses our Oil & Gas, Advanced Materials and Hard Materials Divisions.  Abrasives manufactures Diamond using high pressure high temperature (HPHT) synthesis and Tungsten Carbide for use in applications including cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing.  This has driven demand in industrial sectors as diverse as automotive, aerospace, oil & gas drilling, mining, electronics, road restoration, construction and wood-working.

The Technologies business utilises the extreme properties of diamond beyond hardness, through manufacturing very pure industrial diamond using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques.  These properties are opening up potential applications in a wide array of industries such as optics, power transmission, water treatment, semi-conductors and sensors.  Building on the future potential of CVD diamond, Element Six has created a Ventures unit currently with seven investments pursuing new diamond based applications.  The unique and extreme properties of Diamond have the potential to solve some of the world’s biggest industrial challenges, leaving Diamond well placed to enter an exciting era of future growth in the coming decades.

Click here to read Element Six's Operating & Financial Review for 2010>