De Beers to Resurrect Damtshaa Mine

RAPAPORT… De Beers will bring the Damtshaa mine in Botswana back into
operation, two years after the company ceased production at the asset.

The company has scheduled a re-commissioning and ramp-up of the
deposit during the fourth quarter, with the mine set to reach full production
by January, a De Beers spokesperson told Rapaport News on Monday.

Debswana, De Beers’ joint venture with the Botswana government, “regularly reviews its
production levels to align to the market requirements,” the spokesperson said. “It was along that basis
that a decision was made to return Damtshaa to production.”

The miner put Damtshaa on care and maintenance as part of efforts to reduce production levels in Botswana when rough demand slumped in late 2015. The
mine was one of De Beers’ smallest deposits, contributing 264,000 carats in
2013 and 303,000 carats in 2014, before output dwindled to 221,000 carats in
2015.

Since then, demand for De Beers goods has improved. The miner’s rough-diamond sales rose 37% to $5.6 billion in 2016, though they slipped
7% to $4.38 billion in the first eight sights of 2017, according to Rapaport
calculations.

De Beers
also put the Snap Lake mine on hold during the 2015 slowdown, and announced
last week it would extend its contract for care-and-maintenance services at the
site.