Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest mining company, expected world diamond demand to grow 3 per cent annually through 2016 with China, India and the US leading the growth in diamond jewellery, said Steve Hodgson, managing director of the company's diamond unit. | |
| Rio Tinto said it expects profit and sales at its diamond unit to improve this year, helped by a rise in prices. |
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| The company's diamond sales fell 22 per cent to $838 million in 2006, while underlying earnings at its diamond operation fell 27 per cent to $205 million, according to the company's annual results. |
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| "We expect it to improve this year,'' said Hodgson today at a diamond conference in Mumbai. |
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| "We are expecting prices to be modestly better than the last year,'' he said. |
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| Rio Tinto raised some prices and lowered others, Polished Prices, a diamond industry newswire reported on January 16. |
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| De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, also raised some gem prices in January, while cutting others after reviewing production forecasts from its mines and those of its partners. |
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