Good news for mining giant De Beers: according to a report published by the company and quoted by IDEX Online, De Beers’ total revenue jumped 30% to $6.1 billion in 2016, driven by higher rough diamond sales. These increased by 37% to $5.6 billion.
The miner reported a 50% increase in consolidated sales volumes to 30 million carats – compared with 19.9 million carats in 2015. However, price per carat decreased from $207 in 2015 to $187 in 2016, “reflecting the 13% lower average rough price index, offset to some extent by an improved sales mix”, according to the report.
According to De Beers, “macro-economic conditions underpinning consumer demand for diamonds remain broadly stable in aggregate, with the US expected to continue to be the main driver of global growth in 2017. The extent of global growth will, however, be dependent upon a number of macroeconomic factors, including the new administration in the US, the strength of the US dollar impacting consumer demand, economic performance in China, the effects of Indian demonetization, and sentiment following the main US and Chinese New Year retail season”.
In addition, rough diamond production decreased by 5% to 27.3 million carats from 28.7 million carats in 2015. Debswana maintained production at close to the previous year’s levels, with output of 20.5 million carats; Jwaneng’s production increased by 23%; Orapa’s production was 20% lower. Production at Namdeb Holdings decreased by 11%. In South Africa, production declined by 9% to 4.2 million carats. In Canada, production declined by 45% to 1 million carats.
