Namibia’s rough diamond production increased by 37% to 0.6 million carats in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, primarily driven by the contribution from the Benguela Gem vessel, which commenced production in March 2022, De Beers data released on Tuesday shows.
When compared to Q4 production, the country’s rough diamond production increased marginally, by 5%.
Of the production for the period under review, Debmarine Namibia produced 0.498 million carats, a 33% increase, with Namdeb’s production coming in at 0.121 million carats, a 59% increase.
In Botswana, production increased by 12% to 6.9 million carats, primarily driven by the planned treatment of higher-grade ore and continued strong plant performance at Orapa.
De Beers’ total rough diamond production was flat at 8.9 million carats during the period.
Rough diamond sales by De Beers totalled 9.7 million carats (8.9 million carats on a consolidated basis) from three Sights, compared with 7.9 million carats (7.0 million carats on a consolidated basis) from two Sights in Q1 2022, and 7.3 million carats (6.6 million carats on a consolidated basis) from two Sights in Q4 2022.
Namibia last year produced 2.137 million rough diamonds, a 46% increase from 1.467 million carats last year.
The surge in the country’s production was attributed to the coming into operation of the N$7-billion diamond recovery vessel, Benguela Gem, which was inaugurated in March last year and the treatment of higher-grade ore at the land operations.
In the period under review, Debmarine Namibia’s production for 2022 increased by 52% to 1.725 million carats from 1.137 million carats in 2021.
Namdeb’s production also increased by 25% to 412,000 carats from 330,000 carats the previous year, while in Q4 it recorded 144% surge in production.
