De Beers H1 2016 Profit Nearly $600 Million

(IDEX Online News) – Anglo American has released first half year report for the first six months of the 2016 fiscal year, which showed that its diamond mining company De Beers’ profit was $585 million.

In a video explaining the De Beers’ results, newly installed CEO Bruce Cleaver added that the company had diamond sales of a little over $3 billion and total sales of slightly more than that. The first half of the 2016 fiscal year, showed a marked improvement over the second half of the 2015 fiscal year.

Rough diamond production at De Beers decreased by 15 percent to 13.3 million carats in the first half of the year, compared to 15.6 million carats over the same period in the previous year. The company said that the decrease reflected the decision to reduce production in response to prevailing market conditions during the second half of 2015.

Anglo-American said that its net debt had continued to reduce during 2016, partly as a result of introducing significant reduction of inventories at De Beers.

De Beers’ subsidiary lab-grown producer, Element Six, experienced a challenging first six months of the year due to depressed markets in key industrial sectors, oil and gas in particular.

The company said that wider economic conditions underpinning consumer demand for diamonds remain broadly stable, but there are geopolitical implications that could impact performance. De Beers is cautiously optimistic, but estimates that conditions will remain flat-to-mildly positive during the second half of the year.