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Small number of KP participants block consensus on long-awaited reforms, WDC expresses regret

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The World Diamond Council (WDC) in 21st November expressed profound regret that a small number of Kimberley Process (KP) Participants blocked consensus on long-awaited reforms designed to strengthen protections for Africa’s diamond-mining communities.

For three years, the KP Review and Reform Committee worked on the most ambitious reform effort in more than two decades. That work brought the KP closer than ever to a modernized definition of “conflict diamonds” and to the explicit protection of mining communities.

Despite this unprecedented convergence, consensus was denied, not because the evidence was disputed, nor because alternatives were proposed, but because a few Participants chose politics over people.

Feriel Zerouki

“Progress was killed in pursuit of the impossible,” said Feriel Zerouki, President of the World Diamond Council. “Today, some signaled that the lives of diamond miners in Africa are not as valuable as lives elsewhere. They signaled that protection is a privilege, not a principle.Hope is not a strategy,” Ms. Zerouki said. “Hope must now become pressure, accountability and consequence. We will continue – relentlessly – to fight for a Kimberley Process worthy of the lives it is meant to protect.”

  • A wide majority supported expanding the KP definition to include the modern forms of violence affecting mining regions today. The proposed reform package included:
  • Extending the definition of conflict diamonds to cover violence carried out by armed groups beyond traditional rebel movements, including militias, mercenaries, organized criminal networks, private military and security companies, and other non-state actors.
  • Explicitly recognizing diamond-mining communities within the KP’s mandate of protection.
  • Adding armed conflict and systematic or widespread violence to the list of actions covered by the Kimberley Process.

These updates reflected international best practice. The research underpinning them – shared repeatedly over three years – was never challenged, nor was contrary evidence ever presented.

Despite the disappointment, the WDC reiterated its strong belief in the Kimberley Process as a global platform that remains indispensable.

The WDC president called on all KP Participants to use this moment as a reminder that the KP’s vital work to protect diamond mining communities continues.

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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.

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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.

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