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Anglo American-owned diamond miner De Beers is confident of a rebound in diamond demand as markets across the world begin to reopen after lockdown period triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The diamond industry is a highly resilient industry, it’s gone through various challenges. . . world wars, economic depressions,” Mpumi Zikalala, managing director for De Beers South Africa and Canada, said in an interview with Fin24 Speaks yesterday.

However, she said, the varying degrees of lockdown in the different consumer markets made it difficult to predict when the full recovery would occur.

China has gradually opened up the economy following a wave of coronarivus-related deaths that began towards the end of last year. While the US market was in the process of opening up, the current public protests over racism in the world’s largest diamond market have seen some retailers close shop, Zikalala said. — Bloomberg.