Anglo American has released the report for the first six months of the 2016 fiscal year, showing that diamond mining company De Beers’ profit was down 2% to $585 million, according to IDEX Online and Rough & Polished. De Beers’ total revenue was up 8% to $3.3 billion during H1, compared to $3 billion a year earlier, mainly driven by higher rough diamond sales – which increased by 11% to $3.1 billion.
Rough diamond production at De Beers decreased by 15% to 13.3 million carats in the first half of the year, compared to 15.6 million in the previous year. The company said that the decrease reflected the decision to reduce production in response to prevailing market conditions during the second half of 2015.
Anglo-American said that its net debt had continued to reduce during 2016. It expects to invest more than $100 million this year in Forevermark, continue its construction of the multi-billion dollar production projects at Jwaneng Cut-8 in Botswana, and begin production at The $1 billion Gahcho Kue project in Canada in the third quarter of the year.
