{"id":1156261,"date":"2019-12-18T07:58:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T13:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1009523"},"modified":"2019-12-18T07:58:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T13:58:34","slug":"de-beers-final-diamond-sale-of-the-year-gives-some-hope-to-depressed-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1156261","title":{"rendered":"De Beers final diamond sale of the year gives some hope to depressed market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anglo American&#8217;s\u00a0De Beers, the world&#8217;s No.1 diamond miner by value, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.debeersgroup.com\/media\/company-news\/2019\/de-beers-rough-diamond-sales-for-cycle-10-2019\" >said on Wednesday<\/a> that its last roughs sale of the year fetched $425 million, a slight improvement from the $400 million it obtained in the previous tender, but still a whopping $1.4 billion less than in 2018.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The figure is also lower than the $544 million worth of diamonds the miner sold in December last year, and it brought its total for 2019 to only $4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The diamond giant sells its stones ten times a year in Botswana\u2019s capital, Gaborone. The buyers or \u201csightholders\u201d usually accept the price and the quantities offered, but in the past months they\u2019ve been given more decision power, with \u00a0De Beers allowing them to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/de-beers-steps-up-plans-to-boost-sales-to-let-buyers-reject-up-50-of-small-diamonds\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">refuse about 50% of the stones<\/a>\u00a0contained in the parcels.<\/p>\n<p>The company has also curbed plans to expand diamond production over the next two years and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/de-beers-make-enemies-cuts-low-quality-diamond-prices\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">reduced prices for low-quality stones as much as 10%<\/a>, in yet another sign of increasing volatility at the bottom end of the market.<\/p>\n<p>Cheaper diamonds, which are often small and low quality, have<br \/>\nbeen selling for significantly less now than six years ago due to an unforeseen<br \/>\noversupply that has weighed on prices and producers\u2019 bottom lines. <\/p>\n<p>The situation, some key actors say, is about to change, as<br \/>\nthe first signs of stabilization in the sector are starting to appear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing continued polished diamond price stability in the lead\u00a0up to\u00a0the final sales cycle of the year, we saw further signs of steady demand for rough diamonds during Sight 10,\u201d De Beers chief executive officer, Bruce Cleaver, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debeersgroup.com\/media\/company-news\/2019\/de-beers-rough-diamond-sales-for-cycle-10-2019\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said in the statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>His perception is shared by Russian competitor Alrosa&nbsp;(MCX:ALRS),<br \/>\nwhich&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/alrosa-to-mine-first-diamonds-from-angola-in-mid-2020-as-market-improving\/\">last<br \/>\nweek said<\/a> it had \u201cevidence\u201d that prices for a variety of diamond products<br \/>\nedged higher in October and November. The world\u2019s top diamond producer by<br \/>\noutput &nbsp;also noted that prospects for<br \/>\nde-stocking were \u201cmore visible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Industry consultant Bain &amp; Co., however, believes that<br \/>\nwhile the glut that\u2019s depressing the diamond market will probably be cleared<br \/>\nearly next year, it will take at least another 12 months for the market to<br \/>\nfully recover.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe industry\u2019s first and strongest opportunity to rebalance and regain growth will be 2021,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bain.com\/insights\/global-diamond-industry-report-2019\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said Bain in a report<\/a>, adding that supply could fall 8% that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It fetched $425 million for its diamond in December, a slight improvement from the $400 million it obtained in the previous sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1156261"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156400,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156261\/revisions\/1156400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1156261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1156261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1156261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}