De Beers Group, founded in 1888, has grown into the largest diamond producer in the world, ever since the discovery of the first diamond in South Africa in 1867. Today they have offices, operations and retail activities in 36 countries.
They have operations in South Africa, comprising De Beers Group and Ponahalo Investments – their BEE partner. This partnership generated USD 847m of tax and economic benefits to SA in 2024. In Botswana, they have a significant 50/50 joint venture agreement with the Government of Botswana, namely Debswana, as well as a 50/50 joint venture with Namibia, namely Namdeb, and its wholly owned subsidiary namely DebMarine.
Debswana contributed USD 843m in tax and economic benefits to the Botswana Government in 2024 and Namdeb, Namibia’s biggest taxpayer, contributed USD 545m in tax and economic benefits in 2024 to the Namibian Government. Operations in Canada contributed USD 245m in tax and economic contributions in 2024 to Canada, and there are smaller operations in Angola with investments totalling USD 10.6m for 2024.
From the above it is clear that De Beers Group is making significant contributions in these countries, and should those sizeable contributions diminish, it will not be easy to find another industry to take its place. The local economies invariably will suffer.
De Beers Group posted a loss for the second quarter in 2025 for its diamond business on the back of US-backed tariffs, as well as the ongoing price weakness in rough diamonds, which are down 5% on average for De Beers Group, reflecting a 14% decline in the index price. The Rapaport by Michael Rapaport is the international benchmark for prices of polished diamonds. Rough diamond prices are tracked on the Zimnisky Global Rough Diamond Price Index across markets, compiled by Paul Zimnisky.
Despite the headwinds in the diamond market, De Beers Group still sold 800 000 carats in the second quarter, but they are left with a slow-moving stockpile of USD 2bn according to some reports. De Beers Group control their supply to the market to prevent prices from falling any further and have been doing so for years operating as one of the dominant players in the industry.
Lab grown diamonds, or LGDs, are being seen as the one of the significant factors that have contributed to the slump in demand for natural diamonds.
De Beers Group itself also owns a lab grown diamond brand, Lightbox, established in 2018. In 2024 De Beers Group announced they would completely close the Lightbox brand as LGDs can now be grown at low cost and mass produced according to new technology. LGDs were initially earmarked for industrial use but have found their way to low-cost jewellery and fashion houses. Lab diamonds can be grown in less than 3 hours as opposed to natural diamonds that were formed up to 3,3bn years ago, but they don’t represent the values of scarcity and exceptionality. However, tastes of buyers and fashion houses seem to have changed with a massive impact on the price.
As with any market, there are different future views, which results in uncertainty amongst both buyers and sellers. According to Anglo American, De Beers Group's holding company, they have advanced to “formal stages” of selling De Beers Group, and there are six consortiums interested, not all disclosed. The disclosed consortiums are commodities billionaire Anil Agarwal, some Indian diamond firms, and Qatari Investment funds, including a fund led by former De Beers Group MD Gareth Penny.
So, are diamonds still good business? At the right price, the six consortia are of the firm belief that they are.