Rough Diamond Prices To Surge In 2011

Published on 20/04/11

Increased demand for rough diamonds from the biggest buyer, the United States, and buying increases in India and China mean rough diamond prices are likely to rise in 2011.

This is according to the managing director of De Beers sales and marketing arm, the Diamond Trading Company, Varda Shine, in an interview with Reuters.

She said: 'We believe the price (for rough diamonds) will grow this year ... but not by the same level as we saw last year.

'The prices went up by 27 percent during 2010, it actually went down quite a lot in 2009.'

De Beers controls around 40 percent of the rough or unpolished diamond market.

Countries such as Zimbabwe, which have a relatively untapped rough diamond mining sector could be the biggest beneficiary of firming prices.

The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme and the African Diamond Producers Association recently gave Zimbabwe the green light to export diamonds from its Marange fields in the eastern part of the country.

Traditional producers in the Southern Africa region such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola are likely to benefit even more as they already have the infrastructure in place to exploit the resource.