Image credit: Debswana (Facebook)
“We are expecting at Debswana just under 20 million carats this year, as they have revised their estimates,” BusinessWeek quoted Statistics Botswana senior statistician, Lekoko Simako, as saying.
“Diamonds don’t sell themselves and demand must be sustained through marketing. De Beers has increased these marketing activities.”
“Goods were sent for viewing to their auction arm in Singapore, which allowed De Beers to continue selling into the pockets of demand outside.”
Debswana produced 23.3 million carats last year against a target of 24 million.
The miner’s lowest out in the last five years was 20.3 million carats realized in 2015, while its peak of 24.1 million carats was recorded in 2018.
There had been fears that Debswana’s output would plummet to record low levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Beers, which gets the bulk of its diamonds from Debswana, had lowered its production target this year by 7 million carats to 27 million carats.
Natural Diamond Council chief executive David Kellie recently said that the diamond industry had been recording positive results in the past three to four months.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
