De Beers halts diamond production at flagship South African mine for two years
- Workers' unions have previously warned against job losses in South Africa's mining sector, which employs almost half a million people, external and accounts for more than 4% of national GDP, external.
- De Beers is majority-owned by Anglo American, which is reportedly trying to sell it and shift focus to the growing copper market, external fuelled by the recent AI boom.
- At the Venetia mine, De Beers has pledged to use those two years of downtime to make infrastructure more "efficient" with increased "capacity", external, ready to reopen production once market conditions improve.
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- Workers' unions have previously warned against job losses in South Africa's mining sector, which employs almost half a million people, external and accounts for more than 4% of national GDP, external.
- De Beers is majority-owned by Anglo American, which is reportedly trying to sell it and shift focus to the growing copper market, external fuelled by the recent AI boom.
- At the Venetia mine, De Beers has pledged to use those two years of downtime to make infrastructure more "efficient" with increased "capacity", external, ready to reopen production once market conditions improve.
Sources: BBC News