Namibia has produced 1.231 million carats of rough diamonds in the past six months of the year, a 21% increase from last year’s production of 1.016 million carats, latest figures show.
In the past three months, Namibia’s rough diamond production has increased by 8% to 0.6 million carats, primarily driven by the ongoing ramp-up and expansion of the mining area at the Namdeb land operations, official figures show.
When compared to the first quarter production, the country’s rough diamond production marginally declined by 1%.
Of the production for the period under review, Namdeb’s production increased by 42% to 0.109 million carats from 0.077 million in the same period last year.
For the six months of the year, Namdeb produced 0.230 million carats of rough diamonds from its land based operations, a 50% increase from 0.153 million carats produced the prior year.
Debmarine Namibia’s production in the period under review, marginally increased by 3% to 0.503 million carats from 0.077 million carats in the second quarter in 2022.
Debmarine’s total production for the six months according to De Beers production figures, has increased by 16% 1.001 million from 0.863 million.
De Beers’ rough diamond production decreased by 5% year-on-year to 7.6 million carats in the second quarter as a result of the planned reduction in South Africa.
Rough diamond production in Botswana increased by 6% year-on-year to 5.8 million carats, driven by the planned treatment of higher-grade ore at Orapa, but partially offset by lower throughput at Jwaneng owing to planned maintenance.
Despite the lower second-quarter production, De Beers expects to meet its full-year production guidance of 30 million to 33 million carats.
