Jwaneng Falters, Debswana Diamond Production Drops

After the world's richest diamond mine by value had to suspend operations for a time this past year, its corporate owners produced fewer rough stones that they had in the past. A slope failure at the Jwaneng mine in Botswana led to a temporary cessation of mining activities, which precipitated a drop in annual production capacity for Debswana, the diamond company jointly owned by the De Beers Group and the government of Botswana. Debswana's output for the 2012 calendar year was 20.2 million carats of rough diamonds, a full 12% lower than the 22.89 million carats it harvested in 2011, Rough and Polished reported.

The diamond company's managing director Jim Gowans said Debswana first lowered production targets by 2.6 million carats on account of last year's anemic market prices for rough diamonds. Later, the brief pause in production caused by the slope failure lopped another 1.4 million carats off of the anticipated total, according to Rough and Polished.

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