Namibia’s diamond industry recorded total rough diamond production of 2.082 million carats in 2025, according to De Beers’ production report for the quarter ended 31 December.
The annual output was shared between offshore and onshore operations, with Debmarine Namibia contributing 1.43 million carats, while Namdeb’s land-based operations produced 647,000 carats, representing a 6% increase year on year.
Despite the increase in onshore production, total output declined by 7% from the 2.23 million carats produced in 2024. De Beers attributed the decrease largely to intentional operational pauses during the year.
According to the report, production during the fourth quarter declined as scheduled maintenance was carried out on two recovery vessels and a major technological upgrade was undertaken on the Benguela Gem diamond recovery vessel to install a next-generation subsea crawler.
“Namibia’s production decreased by 21% to 0.5 million carats as a result of scheduled maintenance on two vessels, along with extended in-port time to install a next-generation subsea crawler on the Benguela Gem. Additionally, two vessels were decommissioned earlier in the year as part of the company’s strategic response to prevailing industry conditions,” the report said.
The production decline comes amid challenging global trading conditions for the diamond industry. De Beers said geopolitical uncertainty and increasing competition from lab-grown diamonds have continued to place pressure on prices.
In response to prevailing market conditions, De Beers has revised its global production guidance for 2026 downward to between 21 million and 26 million carats, from a previous range of 26 million to 29 million carats.
“Production guidance for 2026 is revised to 21–26 million carats (100% basis), in response to the challenging rough diamond trading conditions. De Beers continues to monitor rough diamond trading conditions in order to align output with prevailing demand,” the report said.
