Namibia maintains diamond production levels

De Beers’ rough diamond production in Namibia remained flat in the third quarter (Q3) at 0.530 million carats compared to 0.531 million carats in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

This is after Debmarine Namibia recorded a linear performance of 0.423 million carats in both quarters while Namdeb land operation recorded a 1% decrease from 0.108 million carats in the third quarter of 2022 to 0.107 million for the period under review.

Meanwhile, year-to-date production is at 1,761 million carats, an increase of 14% from 1.547 million carats in the preceding period of 2022.

However, the group’s overall performance declined by 23% to 7.4 million carats. This has been attributed to planned production reduction in South Africa as Venetia transitions to underground operations to boost production and scheduled maintenance in Botswana.

In Botswana, diamond production decreased by 12% to 5.8 million carats, driven by lower throughput at Orapa due to planned maintenance, the latest report shows.

“In South Africa, production decreased by 78% to 0.4 million carats due to the planned end of Venetia’s open-pit operations in December 2022. Venetia will continue to process lower grade surface stockpiles as the underground operations boost production over the next few years.”

Whereas production in Canada decreased by 9% to 0.7 million carats due to the planned treatment of lower-grade ore.

Rough diamond sales totalled 7.4 million carats (6.7 million carats on a consolidated basis) from three sights compared to 9.1 million carats (8.5 million carats on a consolidated basis) from three sights in Q3 2022 and 7.6 million carats (6.4 million carats on a consolidated basis) from two sights in Q2 2023.

“Due to the uncertain macro-economic environment and high levels of diamond inventory in the midstream, sightholders took a cautious approach to purchasing during the quarter. And going forward, De Beers will continue to support its sightholders to help re-establish equilibrium between wholesale supply and demand by providing full flexibility for rough diamond allocations in Sights 9 and 10 of 2023.”