Editor’s Note
This article details a significant production surge at the Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Q4 2025, as reported by De Beers. It follows a challenging year for the operation, highlighting the complex dynamics of the diamond industry.
Production at the NWT’s Gahcho Kué diamond mine ramped up significantly in the last quarter of 2025, new figures from operator De Beers show.
Gahcho Kué had a tricky year in 2025, plowing through waste rock – and registering a consequent production slump – to try to reach a higher-grade ore body. In November, mine general manager Kevin Gostlin said Gahcho Kué workers had reached that ore body and could even deliver “a record year next year.”
The diamond market is depressed through a mix of geopolitics (and related tariffs) alongside declining interest from the lucrative Chinese market and the increasing popularity of cheaper lab-grown diamonds.
De Beers’ latest quarterly production report, released on Thursday, shows Gahcho Kué rebounding with 949,000 carats mined in the last quarter of 2025. That’s nearly three times the figure the mine was recording earlier in the year. Year on year, production for the quarter more than doubled.
That’s a rare bright spot for De Beers in an otherwise troubled production report. Output is down across its other diamond operations in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.
While De Beers said “the business produced into prevailing levels of demand” – a reference to the tough market conditions – the company added its owner, Anglo American, is “undertaking an impairment review of De Beers’ carrying value, assessing the impact of diamond market conditions, which could potentially lead to an impairment at the full year results.” Anglo American is trying to find a buyer for De Beers.
An impairment review means an assessment of whether the assets on the books are overvalued, and whether the company could actually get the balance sheet value back if it tried. If the review concludes the assets are valued too highly, it could lead to an impairment charge, which has the effect of lowering the assets’ value and is recorded as an expense.
