Gaborone: De Beers lifted its rough diamond production by 15 percent to 8.5 million carats in the first quarter of 2018 compared with 7.4 million carats, a year earlier, according to its parent company, Anglo American.

The diversified mining group said that the increase in De Beers’ production reflects the ramp-up of production from Gahcho Kué in Canada, which reached nameplate capacity in the second quarter of 2017 and increased production from Botswana’s Orapa in response to the sustained healthy trading conditions.

Debswana output in Botswana jumped 12 percent to 5.8 million carats in the first quarter.

Namdeb Holdings in Namibia also lifted its production by 12 percent to 500,000 carats as a result of accessing consistently higher grades at the land based operations.

South Africa’s De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) production was flat at 1.1 million carats, while output in Canada rose 69 percent to 1.1 million carats.

Meanwhile, Anglo said De Beers’ total rough diamond sales volumes were 8.8 million carats during the period under review compared with 8.4 million carats, a year earlier.

De Beers’ top competitor, Alrosa produced 7.4 million carats in the first quarter, down 17 percent from 8.9 million carats it produced in the first quarter in 2017.

The Russians also sold 10.1 million carats of gem-quality diamonds for $1.58 billion or at an average price of $154 per carat in the first quarter.

This was a drop of 8.2 percent from the 11 million carats sold a year earlier, but a 21.5 percent increase in revenue from $1.3 billion raked in during the same period.