No sparkle in diamond sales
DE BEERS, the largest producer of rough diamonds by value, reported revenue of $520-million for the fourth sales event of the year, well below the figure recorded a year earlier.
De Beers, which is 85% owned by Anglo American and one of the diversified miner’s core business units, said its May sales of $520-million compared with the $636-million it realised in the matching period a year earlier and $586-million in the third sale of 2017.
“We are continuing to see steady demand for rough diamonds despite the industry entering a typically quieter season,” said De Beers chief executive Bruce Cleaver.
The sale comes after the industry restocked its supplies of rough diamonds following the year-end sales period.
So far, the amounted to 2017 sales $2.4-billion, said JP Morgan Cazenove, adding they represented 43% of its full-year sales forecast.
A year ago, the first four sales of the year represented 47% of the 2016 sales figure, it said.
Earlier in 2017, De Beers flooded its uneconomical Snap Lake mine in Canada, preserving a resource of some 30-million carats.
De Beers and its partner, Canada’s Mountain Province, have brought the Gahcho Kue mine into commercial production in 2017, replacing the Snap Lake underground mine with a more cost-effective opencast mine.
De Beers, which tailors production to match market demand, has set its 2017 production target at 31-million to 33-million carats.
It has a total production capacity of 35-million carats, including its 51% share of diamonds from Gahcho Kue, with its annual production of 4.5-million carats. — TMG