Debswana revenues to drop by $500m next year

DE BEERS� Botswana division, Debswana, was set to level out around the 31 million carat mark in coming year. This has little hope since next year lower grades may knock a chunk off the revenue line as well. In a presentation made at the Botswana Resource Conference in Mid-August, Debswana said �revenues would drop in the coming years as the company mines through more lower grade materials.�

�The indications are that yes we will be going through a slight problem, which is primarily due to grade, and we pick that grade back up again in the following year and the years going forward,� a spokesman said in a presentation, �It has to do with sequential mining and what grades are available as we are mining through.�

De Beers itself admitted that the presentation is now out of date and that it was revising these figures but has not yet provided new forecasts. The Orapa and Jwaneng mines are two of the richest in the world, producing nearly 30 million carats a year combined.
The Debswana operations contribute nearly 65% of DeBeers groups 48 million carats of annual production. The group sold $5.7 billion in diamonds in 2004. De Beers is 45% owned by Anglo American.