De Beers has announced its diamond production for the fourth quarter of 2019, reporting a fall of 15% to 7.8 million carats. According to the miner, the fall was driven by lower production levels in South Africa and Botswana, adding that “while trading conditions have improved since Q3 2019, production was reduced in response to softer rough diamond demand conditions experienced in the year”.
Rough diamond sales totalled 7 million carats from from two sales cycles. For the full 2019, rough diamond sales by volume fell 8% to 30.9 million carats. De Beers realized an average price of $137 per carat during 2019 (2018: $171 per carat) “due primarily to a higher proportion of lower value rough diamonds sold in 2019 and a 6% lower rough diamond index”.
As for 2020, De Beers has left its guidance unchanged at 32-34 million carats and added that “the higher production anticipates an improvement in trading conditions compared with 2019, and is driven by an expected increase in production from Venetia”.
