Anglo American keeps De Beers sale on track as diamond output rises 17%

De Beers sold more rough diamonds in the first quarter, but the pricing signal was weaker: average realized price fell 19% to $101 a carat even as output rose 17% to 7.1 million carats. Anglo American said the jump came mainly from planned ore release at Gahcho Kué in Canada and higher volumes from Venetia underground in South Africa, a reminder that the business is still leaning on volume to offset a soft market.

Anglo American said it remains committed to divesting De Beers and expects to give an update during 2026, but it has not set a closing date. That matters because the sale is no longer just a corporate clean-up. It is now one of the clearest signals for the natural-diamond trade about how much pricing discipline and marketing muscle the category may keep if Anglo exits and a new owner steps in.

The numbers behind the business remain bruising. Anglo cut De Beers’ carrying value by $2.3 billion in its 2025 annual report, leaving a book value of $2.3 billion after earlier valuing the company at $4.1 billion following a $2.9 billion impairment in February 2025. De Beers posted a $511 million loss for 2025, deeper than the $25 million loss in 2024, even as revenue rose to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion. Anglo has kept 2026 guidance unchanged at 21 million to 26 million carats of production and unit costs of about $80 a carat, a sign that management is still trying to steady the ship while preparing to let it go.

For buyers, retailers and suppliers, the sale could cut several ways. A well-capitalized owner could shore up category marketing, defend De Beers’ long-standing price architecture and support the kind of supply strategy that keeps retailers confident in natural diamonds as a premium category. A weaker owner, or a prolonged sale process, could leave the brand with less influence over pricing discipline just as lab-grown competition keeps pressuring margins. The difference will matter on the sales floor, where confidence in natural-diamond values depends on more than sparkle.

Botswana will be central to that outcome. It holds a 15% stake in De Beers and, through Debswana, a 50% stake in the joint venture that runs much of the miner’s production. In 2023, Botswana and De Beers extended Debswana mining licenses to 2054, doubled Botswana’s share of Debswana diamonds to 50% from 25%, and included 10 billion pula in development funding. President Duma Boko and mining minister Bogolo Kenewendo have made clear that Botswana sees De Beers as a strategic national asset, including its role in marketing. Anglo says it is engaging with the government regularly as the process advances. With Steelmaking Coal also up for sale and the Teck merger expected to close between September 2026 and March 2027, De Beers is only one piece of a much larger simplification agenda now moving toward a 2026 verdict.