Mining Weekly quotes De Beers chairperson Nicky Oppenheimer as stating that demand for diamonds is "most probably" outstripping supply.



Oppenheimer was also quoted as saying that the Chinese and Indian people are showing a "tremendous desire" to own diamonds. He noted that both countries will be "tremendously important" diamond markets in the future. Nevertheless, he reiterated that the US still accounts for one half of the diamond retail market.



He added: "What one's seeing at the moment is that everything shows that the demand for diamonds is most probably outstripping supply, and so, as a diamond producer, we want to produce as many diamonds as possible."

Regarding poor governance in Africa, which had resulted in being diamonds being referred to as a "resource curse," Oppenheimer conceded that there were countries in Africa where diamonds had been sold to fund civil wars but said that in actual fact only a small proportion of diamonds had been used for illegitimate purposes - "5% at the very most."



Oppenheimer indicated Botswana as an example of a country whose economy relies on the diamond sector and added that Botswana was not the sole example of African growing countries which are becoming increasingly transparent and democratic.