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De Beers Sees Diamond Production Sink 36% in Q2
While struggles continue at the mining and trading end of the pipeline, consumer demand for diamond jewelry is holding steady.
A stock image of the mv SS Nujoma, a marine mining vessel De Beers launched in 2017 to explore and sample diamonds off the coast of Namibia. The company announced today that it is retiring one marine mining vessel, the Coral Sea, and is looking to sell or decommission another, the Grand Banks. (© De Beers Group/Photo credit: Ben Perry @ Armoury Films)
London—De Beers Group continues to hold back on diamond production as demand for rough diamonds remained lower.
The company’s second-quarter production reported was released Thursday, part of parent company Anglo American’s broader report on all of its operations.
Anglo confirmed last May that it is looking to sell De Beers. The company said Thursday that the formal process to offload De Beers is “advancing,” despite market conditions.
In the second quarter, De Beers’ production dropped 36 percent year-over-year to 4.1 million carats, down 36 percent from 6.4 million in the same period last year.
Canada, where De Beers operates one diamond mine (Gaucho Kué), reported the sharpest drop in production at 46 percent, followed by Botswana at 44 percent, and Namibia at 5 percent.
De Beers is treating lower-grade ore in Canada and is doing extended maintenance on the Orapa mine in Botswana. It also has mothballed the Letlhakane tailings plant there in response to the drop in demand for rough diamonds.
In Namibia, the company announced that following a “fleet optimization study,” it has opted to retire its Coral Sea mining vessel and has taken the Grand Banks out of service while it decides if it wants to sell or decommission the ship.
South Africa, where De Beers recently went underground on the Venetia mine, was the only country where production increased, rising 17 percent year-over-year.
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The company’s second-quarter production reported was released Thursday, part of parent company Anglo American’s broader report on all of its operations.
Anglo confirmed last May that it is looking to sell De Beers. The company said Thursday that the formal process to offload De Beers is “advancing,” despite market conditions.
In the second quarter, De Beers’ production dropped 36 percent year-over-year to 4.1 million carats, down 36 percent from 6.4 million in the same period last year.
Canada, where De Beers operates one diamond mine (Gaucho Kué), reported the sharpest drop in production at 46 percent, followed by Botswana at 44 percent, and Namibia at 5 percent.
De Beers is treating lower-grade ore in Canada and is doing extended maintenance on the Orapa mine in Botswana. It also has mothballed the Letlhakane tailings plant there in response to the drop in demand for rough diamonds.
In Namibia, the company announced that following a “fleet optimization study,” it has opted to retire its Coral Sea mining vessel and has taken the Grand Banks out of service while it decides if it wants to sell or decommission the ship.
South Africa, where De Beers recently went underground on the Venetia mine, was the only country where production increased, rising 17 percent year-over-year.
De Beers described rough diamond trading conditions as “challenged” in the first half of the year.
It cut prices, and took lower margins, on certain goods during its three sights in the second quarter, which helped boost revenue, though it noted it expects to report a loss for the first half of the year.
The miner and marketer also saw stronger demand for higher-value diamonds in Q2.
De Beers said it sold 7.6 million carats of rough diamonds, generating $1.19 billion in revenue, compared with 7.8 million carats/$1.04 billion in revenue during the second quarter 2024.
That is a 3 percent decrease in terms of carats sold but a 14 percent increase in revenue.
The consolidated average selling price for rough diamonds has fallen 5 percent year-over-year so far in 2025, dropping to $155 per carat.
The average rough price index is down 14 percent.
(The average rough price index comprises the weighted average of percentage change in selling prices for all De Beers’ sights for the year; as such, it is considered a better like-for-like indicator of the direction of rough diamond prices.)
De Beers said polished trading started to perk up at the end of the Q1, which helped to stabilize polished prices, but the uncertainty surrounding the pending tariffs announced in April slowed the momentum.
While the top end of the diamond pipeline continues to struggle, De Beers noted that at the retail end, consumer demand for diamond jewelry has remained “broadly stable” through the first half of 2025.
De Beers’ production outlook for 2025 remains unchanged at 20-23 million carats.
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