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De Beers, Alrosa Release Latest Rough Results
Both diamond miners continue to characterize diamond sales as being positive.

London--De Beers reported that it sold $470 million in rough diamonds in its ninth sales cycle of the year and revised its preliminary results for the eighth cycle upward.
Last month, the diamond miner and marketer released a provisional sales figure of $485 million for the eighth sales cycle but upped that by about $9 million on Tuesday, to $494 million.
The provisional rough diamond sales figure for the ninth cycle is the lowest total for De Beers to date this year, though CEO Bruce Cleaver said that it “showed continued good demand for De Beers’ rough diamonds, with sales in line with expected seasonal demand patterns.”
Here are De Beers’ actual rough diamond sales figures in the first eight sales cycles of the year, as well as the provisional figure for the ninth. The figures include diamonds sold at the company’s sights as well as through its auction platform.
First sales cycle: $545 million
Second: $617 million
Third: $666 million
Fourth: $636 million
Fifth: $564 million
Sixth: $528 million
Seventh: $639 million
Eighth: $494 million
Ninth: $470 million (provisional)
This is the first year De Beers has opted to release cyclical sales results; as such, no figures are available yet for year-over-year comparisons.
Also this week, Russian diamond mining company Alrosa released its sales results for the month of October.
The company said diamond sales totaled $439 million in October, $430.8 million in rough and the remaining $8.2 million in polished.
That is down from $454 million in September, $435.1 million in rough sales and $18.9 million in polished.
Alrosa did not provide October 2015 sales figures to enable a year-over-year comparison and did not respond when asked for them.
Vice President Yury Okoemov was quoted in the release as saying only that, “Demand remained strong in October, even on the threshold of the holiday season during the celebration of Diwali in India, the (world’s) largest (diamond) cutting and polishing center.”
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