Anglo American plc said the value of rough diamond sales (Global Sightholder Sales and Auction Sales) for De Beers’ tenth sales cycle of 2016, amounting to $418 million, compared with the $476 million value of the ninth sales cycle of 2016.
Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers, said: “We continued to see good demand for De Beers rough diamonds in our latest sales cycle. While the trade in lower value rough diamonds is experiencing a temporary slowdown as a result of the demonetisation programme in India, demand across the rest of the product mix continued to be healthy and overall sales remained in line with seasonal expectations. Pleasingly, sales were also significantly higher than those for the equivalent cycle in 2015.”