De Beers will suspend production at its Venetia mine in Limpopo for two years as the global natural diamond industry battles weak demand and growing competition from laboratory-grown diamonds.
De Beers said will pause production at Venetia mine in Limpopo, South Africa’s biggest diamond mine employing about 4,400 staff, for two years to reduce costs.
The proposed action at Venetia mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué mine in Canada, the group said in a statement Monday.
De Beers is majority-owned by Anglo American, which is in turn seeking to offload its shareholding as the natural diamond market faces intense pressure from laboratory-grown gems and slower demand, and as Anglo is itself merging with Canada-based Teck Resources, both of which are focusing heavily on copper mining due to its surging demand from the global energy transition.
De Beers employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. The $2.3 billion underground expansion at Venetia that started in 2015 had been the largest investment in South Africa’s diamond industry in decades. Some 2.2 million carats were recovered from Venetia last year, the group’s website shows.
