De Beers to Sell Last Producing Assets in Kimberley

The Financial Times reported that De Beers is planning to sell its last producing assets in Kimberley, South Africa. The company’s plan is to focus on “much larger mines across southern Africa.”

De Beers hopes to make the sale in the next few months, though it hasn’t said how much it wants to sell the assets for.

According to the news outlet, De Beers has a long history in Kimberley:

De Beers traces its roots to diamond discoveries in Kimberley in the 1870s that brought miners flocking to the area to seek their fortune. The rush for the precious stones was to lead to De Beers becoming the leading diamond miner under Cecil Rhodes and subsequently the Oppenheimer family.

The company, founded in 1888 and now majority-owned by Anglo American, remains the largest diamond miner by the value of its annual output. But its industry dominance has been eroded by growth in production in Russia, Canada and elsewhere, and by regulatory action against its leading role in supplying stones.

De Beers no longer digs diamonds from the ground in Kimberley but has for years been recovering diamonds from previously mined rock, known as tailings.

This operation had been due to end in 2018 but De Beers said on Thursday that it would put the operations on the market to see if a buyer was interested in extending its life.

Phillip Barton, chief executive of De Beers Consolidated Mines, commented:

Kimberley Mines may not have to close in the near future … with an appropriate operator, this asset has potential into the next decade.

Click here to read the full Financial Times report.