The world’s leading diamond company, De Beers, says it generated N$10.5 billion (US$650 million) in its fifth cycle sale of gems, including some from Namibia.
The latest figure is a huge improvement from US$477 million recorded in the prior year, and US$604 million registered in the fourth cycle.
“Diamond jewelry demand continues to perform well in the key US market, and this was reinforced by positive sentiment following the influential JCK Las Vegas jewelry trade show held in mid-June,” CEO Bruce Cleaver said in a statement.
“The continued strength of US demand for diamond jewelry and the gradual reopening of retail outlets in China following Covid-19-related lockdowns have supported the sales momentum of De Beers Group’s rough diamonds in the fifth sales cycle of the year.”
De Beers Spokesperson, David Johnson, however could not divulge the exact value contributed by Namibian diamonds
“I’m afraid we do not report on the value of sales by individual location – we only publish the total sales value for each cycle,” he told The Brief.
De Beers has now sold a provisional US$3.13 billion so far in 2022, having sold US$4.82 billion in 2021 and US$2.79 billion in 2020.
De Beers holds 10 cycles a year, but the figures are provisional as the group has extended viewing of stones beyond its normal one week due to Covid-19-related restrictions on travel.
De Beers is not the only precious stones group to report robust demand, with ruby and emerald miner Gemfields reporting recently that a ruby auction in Thailand in June brought in a record $95.6m, almost twice the result of an auction held at the same time three years ago.
This also followed a recent record set for an emerald auction in May, also in Thailand, which brought in $43.3 million. Gemfields at the time described demand for its stones as “remarkable”.
De Beers is a 50% shareholder in Namdeb and Debmarine Namibia.
Namibia’s diamond production marginally increased to 1.467 million carats last year, compared to 1.448 million carats produced in 2020, according De Beers figures.
