Gaborone: De Beers put up prices of its rough stones for the first time in more than a year as it detects rising demand for its goods. The miner raised prices by up to 2% at its latest sight taking place this week, according to three people familiar with the process cited by Bloomberg Business. The value of the sale may be similar to De Beers’ previous sight in which it sold $610 million of rough diamonds. In January, the miner sold $545 million of diamonds. Rough prices slumped by around 18% in 2015 as demand dropped, but in the first quarter of this year De Beers and ALROSA together have sold around $3 billion of goods.

“Banks such as Liberum Capital remain skeptical that a price rebound can be sustained and that demand gains are anything more than cutters, polishers and traders replenishing supply,” Bloomberg reported. “Liberum said last month that it might take at least another year to recover, while miner Gem Diamonds said it’s still too early to tell whether a recovery will stick.”

Meanwhile, ALROSA reportedly left prices unchanged at its March sight for long-term clients, but imposed its strict selection limit for contracts which allows clients to decline only 30% of their monthly allocation, representatives of several ALROSA counteragents told Interfax. ALROSA did not comment on the details of its trading sessions.