"If we can do it well enough, I can't see why mining should not be a lucrative business going forward."ĭemand for diamonds over the last decade has been driven by a new generation of buyers in China and India that have adopted the tradition of giving diamond engagement rings. "The troughs and the peaks (of diamond prices) happen more frequently now but I am optimistic," said Von Maltitz. It also sold its last mine in the South African town of Kimberley, where the diamond industry was born and where De Beers was founded in 1888 by British colonialist Cecil Rhodes.īut the Venetia mine is set to become one of the world's five biggest diamond mines after its conversion from open-pit to underground operations is finally completed in 2022.Ĭurrent predictions suggest the mine will then operate until at least 2043. Reflecting widespread uncertainty in the industry, De Beers - the world's largest supplier of diamonds by value - shut diamond mines in Canada and Botswana last year. In recent years, diamond prices have fluctuated sharply.Īfter the global economic crisis in 2008, prices recovered quickly to hit a peak in 2011 before falling about 20 percent to slightly below their current rate.Īmid such swings, mining companies must judge whether it is profitable to prospect for diamonds in increasingly difficult geological conditions, or in unstable countries such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "The project at Venetia is stupendous - especially as very few other firms are investing in mining in South Africa." "We are often told that the growing world population, combined with the increasing difficulty of finding diamonds, will mean prices always rise, but we will see. "Across the globe, the big diamond deposits have been exploited, and I don't see any big new mines coming online," Peter Major, mining specialist at Johannesburg-based Cadiz Solutions, told AFP. "Worldwide, the easier diamond sources have probably been found but, with this resource here, we hope we have something that can extend well into the future."Īs the hunt for diamonds becomes tougher, mining companies must go to greater lengths - and absorb higher costs - to secure the ultimate precious stone and symbol of love. "We are in very challenging times," Ludwig Von Maltitz, the mine's general manager, told AFP on the edge of the cavernous open-pit as trucks rumbled up to the processing plant.
Now a whole new underground mine is being constructed underneath the hole to reach diamonds more than 1,000 metres below ground - a big bet by De Beers that their investment will reap decades of profit. Proof that diamonds are getting harder to find can be seen in the South African bush, where one of the world's largest mining companies is spending $2 billion tunnelling beneath a vast open-pit mine.ĭe Beers spent 25 years digging a 450-metre (1,500-foot) deep by one-kilometre wide hole to access diamond-rich rock from the surface at the Venetia mine, close to the border with Zimbabwe and Botswana. Worldwide, big diamond deposits have been exploited: Mining specialists.Venetia mine will go from open-pit to underground operations by 2022.De Beers to spend $2 billion on diamond mine 1,000 metres underground.
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