DiamondBuzz
De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation
Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.
De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.
Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.
Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.
On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.
Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.
De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.
This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.
In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.
Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.
Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”
De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.
DiamondBuzz
Botswana Looks Beyond Rough Diamond Sales, Eyes U.S. Jewelry Market
The Duty Exemption By US Presents An Opportunity For Domestic Jewelry Manufacturers In Gaborone To Bypass Traditional Middle-Market Hubs and Establish A Direct Pipeline To American Consumers
Grappling with a painful downturn in global rough-diamond demand, Botswana is pivoting its economic strategy: expanding up the supply chain directly into American retail shelves while leveraging its resource wealth to fund conservation and diversification.
Speaking on the sidelines of New York Climate Week, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Botswana’s Minister of Minerals and Energy, highlighted the southern African nation’s plan to capitalize on a 0% import-tariff rate to the U.S. market. The duty exemption presents an opportunity for domestic jewelry manufacturers in Gaborone to bypass traditional middle-market hubs and establish a direct pipeline to American consumers.
shift The push into value-added manufacturing comes as the world’s top diamond producer by value navigates a broader structural Diamond revenues have long formed the bedrock of Botswana’s post-independence balance sheet, underwriting universal secondary education and tuition-free university funding. However, recent market volatility has underscored the vulnerabilities of a mono-sectoral economy.
Under the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP)—an initiative spearheaded directly by President Duma Boko and his vice president—the government is directing resources toward manufacturing, agriculture, and broader mining sectors to reduce its heavy reliance on rough diamond sales.
To support its luxury exports, Botswana is recalibrating its brand narrative around origin, environmental stewardship, and social impact. The country recently announced a five-year extension of the “Okavango Eternal” partnership alongside De Beers Group and the National Geographic Society. The initiative aims to protect the ecological integrity of the Okavango River Basin while tying diamond purchases to conservation efforts.
With De Beers currently facing an impending ownership change, officials remain optimistic that any capital restructuring could bring additional funds into Botswana to accelerate its domestic economic transition.
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