By Lisa Barrington

DUBAI (Reuters) – Pure diamond provide has peaked and can stay secure for the subsequent few many years, the CEO of mining large De Beers advised Reuters on Monday, including that the business ought to see respectable medium- to long-term progress.

De Beers Group, Anglo American (LON:)’s diamond enterprise, is without doubt one of the world’s main diamond miners alongside Russia’s Alrosa.

“I do not see a purpose to suppose there won’t be respectable progress medium- to long-term within the diamond business … I really feel extra constructive in regards to the future than I’ve carried out for a very long time,” Bruce Cleaver mentioned on the sidelines of a diamond business convention in Duabi.

“Provide will stay secure. It will not fall off a cliff. We see 20, 30, 40 years of secure provide. That is why I really feel fairly constructive,” he mentioned, including that provide in all probability peaked in 2018-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the worldwide diamond provide chain, with some mines shuttered, tough diamond commerce plummeting and polishers in India leaving their jobs.

Within the second quarter of 2020, De Beers bought round 3% of the tough diamonds they might usually, Cleaver advised the convention, partly as a result of issues about miners working carefully collectively restricted manufacturing and partly as a result of patrons anticipated decrease shopper demand as economies slowed.

When demand rallied from the tip of 2020, elevated polished costs led to elevated tough costs, Cleaver advised Reuters.

De Beers gross sales have been $4.82 billion in 2021, up from $2.79 billion in 2020, firm information exhibits.

In December, De Beers mentioned it had utilized to conduct exploration actions in north-eastern Angola, following reforms of the nation’s diamond business.

“We stay extraordinarily centered on exploration,” Cleaver mentioned, including the corporate is exploring in Botswana, Canada and South Africa.

Final yr, it additionally commissioned a survey of the ocean ground off Greenland’s coast in a primary step to find out whether or not it may maintain deposits of highly-prized marine diamonds. De Beers already produces diamonds from Namibia’s sea mattress.

“It’s far too early to inform whether or not that’s or is not going to work,” Cleaver mentioned of the Greenland analysis.

De Beers’ future can even see funding in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices, Cleaver mentioned, with out giving figures. This consists of diamond traceability utilizing blockchain know-how, working in the direction of a objective of being carbon impartial by 2030, and higher mining practices.