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For the first time in a decade, diamond production is falling behind demand – good news for the African countries who supply more than half the world’s gemstones.
Annual diamond output is expected to average about 127 million carats between 2021 and 2026, according to Paul Zimnisky Diamond Analytics. Production in 2019, when pre-pandemic conditions still prevailed, saw 142 million carats brought to market.
Around 152 million carats were mined in 2017, the recent high-water mark. However, production fell to a three-decade low last year with just 119 million carats produced.
“An oversupplied diamond supply chain was the biggest culprit for industry underperformance for the most of last decade,” Mr Zimnisky says. “All-time high diamond prices in 2011 was the primary catalyst leading to the oversupply.”
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By year’s end, the world s largest hydrogen powered land vehicle will be crawling along the dusty plains of South Africa’s Bushveld region.
Japanese firm Komatsu, which specialises in heavy industrial machines, will dispatch a hauling lorry that weighs almost 300-tonnes to a platinum mine belonging to Anglo American Platinum. These vehicles are common on mining sites, where their vast payload capacity is used to carry ore for processing.
These beasts of machines traditionally use diesel to fire their engines, but this one will be different. It will be powered by hydrogen, through a clean-burning fuel cell. Eventually, Anglo’s entire fleet of mine vehicles will run on emissions-free technology, chief executive Mark Cutifani says.
South Africa has been especially hard hit. A mutant strain that local scientists said last week is 50 per cent more infectious, is ravaging the country. Hospitals are turning patients away, medical oxygen supply is stretched, and undertakers are struggling to cope with burials. More than 40,500 deaths related to Covid-19 have been reported so far.
The South African government has set a target to have two-thirds of its 60 million people inoculated, but it has yet to secure the 80 million doses scientists say would be needed to achieve this. The state has committed to purchasing 12 million doses through Covax, the global initiative to secure vaccines for poorer countries.
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Chocolate demand remained strong throughout the pandemic as the world s most popular comfort food was one of the pleasures continued to enjoy from their own homes.
The farmers who grow precious cocoa, however, saw little benefit.
Cocoa is the essential ingredient of chocolate and has no substitute. More than 70 per cent of the world s supply of cocoa comes from West Africa, according to Netherlands-based industry monitor Cocoa Barometer.
Of this, half comes from just two countries – Ghana and Ivory Coast. Other regional countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon are also expanding production, keen to grab a slice of the market that supplies the $130 billion chocolate industry.