De Beers said its rough diamond production increased by 46% to 9.2 million carats in line with the higher production forecast for 2017, reflecting stable trading conditions as well as the contribution from the ramp-up of Gahcho Kué in Canada.

According to Anglo American’s third quarter production report, Debswana production increased by 33% to 6.1 million carats.

A dump truck at a Debswana operation

“Orapa’s production increased by 60% mainly driven by the ramp-up of Plant 1, which was previously on partial care and maintenance in response to trading conditions in late 2015. Jwaneng’s production increased by 23% as a result of planned increases in feed to plant.”

Namdeb Holdings (Namibia) production increased by 12% to 0.5 million carats primarily as a result of higher mining rates from Debmarine Namibia’s Mafuta vessel. DBCM (South Africa) production increased by 41 per cent to 1.5 million carats largely as a result of higher grades at Venetia.

Production in Canada increased five-fold to 1.1 million carats due to the ramp-up of Gahcho Kué which reached nameplate capacity in Q2 2017.

Consolidated rough diamond sales volumes in Q3 2017 were 6.5 million carats (6.9 million carats on a total 100% basis) from two Sights, compared with 5.3 million carats (5.7 million carats on a total 100% basis) from two Sights in Q3 2016. The increase was driven by a normalisation of demand for lower value goods in 2017.

Full year production guidance has been revised to ~33 million carats (previously 31 – 33 million carats).