Strong gains seen in rough diamond prices

"We have seen a rapid recovery and prices are back to pre-crisis levels," Harry Kenyon-Slaney, chief executive officer of diamonds and minerals at London-based Rio, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "What we see going forward is a long decline in production and a significant growth in demand."

Diamond miners are struggling to keep pace with growing consumption in emerging economies as older mines are exhausted and producers lack new discoveries.