Namibia’s diamond production marginally increased to 1.467 million carats last year, compared to 1.448 million carats produced in 2020, latest figures from De Beers show.
In the 12 months to December 2021, Debmarine produced the bulk of the country’s diamonds, churning out 1.137 million carats from its marine diamond operations, marginally up from the 2020 production figure of 1.125 million.
Namdeb’s diamond production increased by 2% in 2021 to closed the year at 0.330 million carats.
This is against a 29% increase in De Beers total diamond production of 32.276 million carats for 2021, compared to 25.102 million in 2020, with Botswana leading with production figures of 22.326 million carats, a 35% increase year on year.
In final quarter of the year (Q4), Namibia’s diamond production increased by 16% to 0.4 million carats compared to 0.337 million carats produced in the same period last year, with Debmarine’s production coming in at 0.330 million carats and Namdeb producing 0.062 million carats.
“Namibia production increased by 16% to 0.4 million carats reflecting a reduction in the scheduled maintenance time for the marine fleet,” the diamond company said.
De Beers, the world’s top diamond producer by value, saw production jump in the last quarter of 2021 by 15% to 7.7 million carats, as it boosted production to meet recovering demand.
The group’s Canadian output remained rather flat, falling from 0.776 million carats in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 0.771 million in the same period last year mostly due to planned plant maintenance.
De Beers in Namibia has land operations through Namdeb and marine operations through Debmarine.
De Beers sells its gems through 10 sales each year in Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, and the handpicked buyers, known as sightholders, generally have to accept the price and the quantities offered.
In the latest sightholder, held earlier this month, the company is said to have hiked prices by about 8%, The sharpest increases of up to 20% were for smaller, cheaper stones.
