De Beers announced that it had sold $530 million worth of rough diamonds in its fifth sales cycle of 2017 — a 6 percent drop from the $564 million sold in the fourth cycle, but 1.5 percent above the $522 million sold in the fifth cycle of 2016.
De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver said, “Following positive feedback from the Las Vegas trade show, and in line with recent trends, we saw continued good demand for De Beers rough diamonds in the fifth sales cycle of the year.”
Supply shows little impact from De Beers’ rough diamond supply problems out of South Africa. South African Minerals Minister Mosebenzi Zwane suddenly refused to grand De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), the mining goup’s South African arm, an export exemption enabling it to ship diamonds mined in South Africa to Botswana for sorting and aggregation.
DBCM receives an annual exemption to allow for the combined sorting of rough diamonds from its operations in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Canada, thus enabling it to sell the best assortments profitably to cutters from around the world. High-value rough is shipped back into South Africa after sorting to fulfil De Beers’ beneficiation norms.
According to various reports, DBCM has met all its export value obligations as well as beneficiation norms to date and the sudden refusal of exemption has bewildered many industry watchers.
DBCM has taken the Minister to court over the matter.
https://www.gemkonnect.com/news/de-beers-sells-530m-cycle-5-sa-supply-problem-has-little-impact