De Beers, the world's biggest diamond miner, is planning for a 50 per cent fall in turnover this year, it emerged yesterday as the diamond market faces one of its bleakest years in a generation.
But in a rare public fightback against a sceptical market, the South African group, which mines 40 per cent of the world's diamonds, has told the Financial Times that it is convinced it can survive a further two years of recession.
“Trading conditions are tough,” said Stuart Brown, De Beers' finance director. “But because we saw it early and took very dramatic steps around the business, we are in a position to weather trade in 2009 and 2010 without any recourse to shareholder funds.”