KIMBERLEY (miningweekly.com) - Diamond mining giant De Beers would continue to run its business with its "guard up", said De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) MD David Noko, who cautioned against being overly optimistic about the recession being over.

The De Beers Diamond Trading Centre (DTC) in Kimberley, which sorts and values all DBCM's production, held its first sighting of 2010 in January.

"The January sighting saw clients buying between three and five times what they purchased in the previous sighting," DTC South Africa MD Faried Sallie told journalists at the DTC on Tuesday.

"The January sighting was good - but was it good because of genuine demand, or are clients merely restocking because of reduced inventories and minimised variety?" questioned Noko.

"I am inclined to say the good sales were people filling up the pipeline. But I am cautiously optimistic," Noko added.

The company responded to the recession by implementing various measures from reduced production, reorganisation, and increasing efficiencies, to retrenchments.

Owing to reduced production, the South African DTC, which sorted some 11,5-million carats in 2008, sorted only 4,5-million carats in 2009. Globally, the group's revenues were down by about 30% in 2009.

However, production had once again picked up in October 2009.

"We should expect difficult times. Windfalls of the recession may bring volatility," said Noko, adding that strategies implemented by the company to survive the recession were also plans to sustain the business.

Noko spoke to Mining Weekly Online at the launch of the Diamond Route, which is a partnership between De Beers and the Oppenheimer family in environmental conservation and tourism, and includes insight into South Africa's cultural, historical and diamond-mining features.

The Diamond Route links nine sites and includes property owned by De Beers and the Oppenheimer family. It stretches from the far west of the country at the Namaqualand diamond coast site next to the Namaqualand National Park, moves east to Kimberley, which includes the Kimberley big hole, the Benfontein reserve, the Dronfield nature reserve and the Rooipoort nature reserve, and on to the Tswalu Kalahari game reserve, then up to the Brenthurst Gardens in Johannesburg, and the Ezemvelo nature reserve near Pretoria, and finally up to the Venetia Limpopo Nature reserve near Musina.

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