Rio Tinto, which has diamond mining interests in Zimbabwe’s Murowa mine,  Canada’s Diavik mine and Australia’s Argyle mine, reported an acute  increase in earnings from these operations in the first half of the  year.

It said in a statement that the diamond sales by the company totaled  $326 million in the period, a 77.2 percent increase from the prior year.

“Demand and prices for rough diamonds strengthened significantly in the  first half of 2010 as economies emerged from the global financial  recession,” Rio Tinto said.

“Continued demand growth in both India and China, as well as continued  restocking of the diamond supply chain, were the key factors in the  recovery.”

The miner produced 7.1 million carats during the six month period.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto’s group gross sales revenues leaped 37 percent to $26.77 billion.

Its net earnings upped 260 percent to 5.85 billion USD, while net debt  was reduced to $12 billion from $39 billion, a year earlier.

Ref: Rough-Polished.com