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Production report for the third quarter of 2017

24 Oct 2017

Diamonds1

Q3 2017 Q3 2016 Q3 2017 vs. Q3 2016 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 vs. Q2 2017 YTD 2017 YTD 2016 YTD 2017 vs. YTD 2016

Debswana

000 carats

6,056

4,549

33%

5,933

2%

17,180

15,061

14%

Namdeb Holdings

000 carats

454

405

12%

391

16%

1,317

1,145

15%

DBCM

000 carats

1,548

1,094

41%

1,405

10%

4,059

2,847

43%

De Beers Canada

000 carats

1,120

225

398%

1,013

11%

2,764

534

418%

Total carats recovered

000 carats

9,178

6,273

46%

8,742

5%

25,320

19,587

29%

Rough diamond production increased by 46 per cent to 9.2 million carats in line with the higher production forecast for 2017, reflecting stable trading conditions as well as the contribution from the ramp-up of Gahcho Kué in Canada.

Debswana (Botswana) production increased by 33 per cent to 6.1 million carats. Orapa’s production increased by 60 per cent mainly driven by the ramp-up of Plant 1, which was previously on partial care and maintenance in response to trading conditions in late 2015. Jwaneng’s production increased by 23 per cent as a result of planned increases in feed to plant.

Namdeb Holdings (Namibia) production increased by 12 per cent to 0.5 million carats primarily as a result of higher mining rates from Debmarine Namibia’s Mafuta vessel.

DBCM (South Africa) production increased by 41 per cent to 1.5 million carats largely as a result of higher grades at Venetia.

Production in Canada increased five-fold to 1.1 million carats due to the ramp-up of Gahcho Kué which reached nameplate capacity in Q2 2017.

Consolidated rough diamond sales volumes in Q3 2017 were 6.5 million carats (6.9 million carats on a total 100 per cent basis) from two Sights, compared with 5.3 million carats (5.7 million carats on a total 100 per cent basis) from two Sights in Q3 2016. The increase was driven by a normalisation of demand for lower value goods in 2017.

Full Year Guidance

Full year production guidance1 has been revised to ~33 million carats (previously 31 – 33 million carats).

1 De Beers production is on a 100 per cent basis, except for the Gahcho Kué joint venture which is on an attributable 51 per cent basis.
2 Consolidated sales volume excludes De Beers’ JV partners’ 50% proportionate share of sales to entities outside the De Beers Group of Companies from the Diamond Trading Company Botswana and the Namibia Diamond Trading Company, and includes pre-commercial production sales volumes from Gahcho Kué.