The Liberian government diamond office appraised and certified 27,771.98 carats for exports, with a total value of $10.4 million between January and September this year.
A United Nations panel of experts on Liberia said in a report that this equated to an average price of $387.31 per carat.
“[This] is in line with average price trends for 2011, rather than the highly inflated average price for 2010 ($686.87 per carat) that the Panel analysed in its final 2011 report,” it said.
The panel also said that total exports as at the end of September 2012 were down by 6,059.32 carats compared with the same period for 2011.
This was largely as a consequence of heavy rains that affected communications and fuel prices, as well as the inflated gold price, which drove several artisanal miners out of the alluvial diamond sector and into the alluvial gold sector in south-eastern and south-western Liberia.
“The global economic downturn has also seen a slump in demand for diamonds. Moreover, gold mining offers more regular cash flow throughout the year in comparison with the more seasonally affected production processes of gravel extraction and washing that characterize alluvial diamond mining,” it said.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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