Special news on the diamond market this week: De Beers sells another South-African mine. A couple years ago they also sold the historical Cullinan mine, where one of the most famous diamonds was found, the Cullinan.
The Beers are looking for a buyer for the Voorspoed mine in South Africa. De Beers, who almost owns a world monopoly on diamonds, reopened this mine in 2008. At the time, the group emphasized that this was the first project that was completely based on ‘black economic empowerment’, a strategy of the South African government to let the black population benefit from the diamond market.
With the purchase of the mine, De Beers took over 93% of the diamond production in South Africa. Nine years later, they are looking for a new buyer.
According to De Beers, a lower-cost operator would have a better chance to maximise the value of the assets. An operational model that differs from De Beers should be able to extend the productive lifespan until after 2020. This should guarantee ongoing work and economic opportunities on the South African diamond market.
“We think that giving the lower-cost operators the chance to buy the mine, is the most responsible action”, thus Phillip Barton, CEO of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
In South-Africa, De Beers now spends about 2 billion dollars extra in de ‘open-pit mine’ Venetia. Open-pit, also called opencast, is the most used mine building technique for new mines. The Venetia-mine, meanwhile, reached a certain depth, so that they had to decide to further expand the activities underground.
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