De Beers sells $490m of rough diamonds in cycle two

Diamond miner De Beers on Tuesday reported that the value of its rough diamond sales for cycle two of the year was $490-million, compared with $500-million in cycle one and $563-million in cycle two of 2018.

This brings the provisional total for rough diamond sales to date this year to $990-million.

De Beers sold about $5.39-billion of rough diamonds in 2018, and about $5.31-billion of rough diamonds in 2017.

CEO Bruce Cleaver said demand for rough diamonds remained consistent during the cycle. “While overall demand for lower-value rough diamonds remains subdued, we did see an increase in demand from India as factories begin to restock.”