“Advanced” De Beers Sale Spurs Talk at Mining Conference

By Rob Bates | February 11, 2026

The prospective sale of De Beers was clearly on the minds of attendees at this week’s Mining Indaba conference, with Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad calling the process “relatively far advanced,” an Angolan minister discussing what his country wants, and former De Beers chief Gareth Penny (pictured) spelling out his ideas for the company.

Wanblad told the Financial Times that he hopes Anglo’s 85% stake in De Beers will be sold sometime this year, with the buyer most likely some form of public-private partnership. Any deal will “almost certainly” include Botswana boosting its current 15% stake in De Beers, Wanblad said.

Meanwhile, Paulo Tanganha, national director of mineral resources for a different diamond-producing nation, Angola, told Reuters that his country hopes to purchase 20% to 30% of De Beers, a change from previous reports that Angola was seeking majority ownership.

“Taking the majority stake within luxury commodities is very dangerous because it depends on the market,” Tanganha said. “So to de-risk that, we have to have a portion that is sustainable for our economy.”

He added that “closed-door talks” about the De Beers sale were continuing with other diamond-producing countries, including Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia.

“There is a saying, ‘Together we are stronger,’” said Tanganha. “That’s the way we are doing it. And if my neighbor is suffering, I also suffer. So we have to be together and fight together as a team.”

He declined comment on how Angola would fund its stake.

Also during the Cape Town conference, Penny—who is involved with one of the groups that hopes to purchase De Beers—told Mining Indaba TV that he believes “the [diamond] industry needs a big global leader, and that, in my view, needs to be De Beers.

“The number one priority for me,” Penny said, “would be to see the reestablishment of De Beers as the real force that it used to be in the industry—the company that had the ability to spend $200 or $300 million a year behind marketing, that could carefully do the analysis and all the research in the four or five key markets and decide what the winning idea could be for this year, and then work together with its clients, with the producers, and the retailers in driving demand by that idea.”