De beers produces 7m carats first quarter

The diamond giant mined 7.012 million carats during the first three months of the year, compared with only 1.082 million in the same period of 2009, according to a report by Anglo American, which owns 45 percent of De Beers.

"Production is significantly ahead of [first quarter] 2009, during which production was scaled back across all mines in response to weak market sentiment," Anglo American stated in its production report for the period.  De Beers production still fell 40 percent below the 11.774 million carats that the company mined in the first quarter of 2008.