Botswana Overtakes Russia as Highest-Value Diamond Producer

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The latest official statistics released by the Kimberley Process, a joint industry-government initiative to help to stem sales of "conflict" diamonds, show Botswana regaining the global top spot as the largest producer of rough diamonds by value. In 2010, the country produced 22 million carats, valued at $2.59 billion. Botswana was unseated from the top spot by Russia in 2009. In 2011, Debswana (Gaborone, Botswana), a partnership of the government of Botswana and the De Beers Group (Johannesburg, South Africa), has a production target of 25 million carats.

Russia was the top diamond producer by volume in 2010 with 34.86 million carats valued at $2.38 billion. In 2009, the country was top of the league for both volume and value.

Botswana's neighbor in Southern Africa, Namibia, moved into the top 10 by producing stones to the value of $744 million.

Canada came third in the value stakes for rough diamonds at $2.3 billion, with South Africa taking fourth ranking with $1.8 billion. The West African country of Angola produced $976.3 million in value and Zimbabwe recorded $339.9 million. This figure might have been higher if illicit mining production and smuggled stones could have been identified. Australia recorded production to the value of $251.7 million.

Global rough diamond production rose 39% by value to $12 billion, but did not reach the peak of 2008, when production totaled 12.73 billion. The production of rough diamonds by volume rose about 7% to 133.12 carats in 2010. The average price per carat produced rose 30% to $90.13.

The high-value stones coming out of another African country, landlocked Lesotho, produced the highest per-carat value globally by a wide margin, at $1,816.63 per carat.

Others countries in the top producer league in 2010 were Democratic Republic of Congo with 20.17 million carats and South Africa with 13.67 million carats. Canada produced 11.8 million carats, Zimbabwe reported 8.44 million carats, and Angola 8.36 million carats of production. Kimberley Process member states' total exports rose 51% to $37.6 billion, and rough imports rose 51% to $37.78 billion.

The global top exporter was the European Union, which had outgoing stones valued at $14.3 billion. Israel exported $3.74 in rough diamonds, Dubai came third with $3.54 billion, Botswana $2.88 billion, Russia $2.78 billion and Canada with $2.41 billion.

The E.U. topped the rough importer rankings with $13.59 billion of rough diamonds imported into the country. India ranked second with $11.23 billion in imports, Israel $4.43 billion, Dubai $2.06 billion and China with $2.02 billion.

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