Clifford Elphick
CEO: Gem Diamonds
‘You get to a point where you simply cannot cost-cut yourself to a profit’
THE slump in Gem Diamonds’ market cap over the past two decades is a powerful indicator of the value lost in the diamond industry. On listing in London in 2007, Gem Diamonds’ market cap was more than $1bn. At end-2025, it was about $6.5m. Elphick cites pressures such as competition from lab-grown diamonds, weak growth in markets such as China, and recent uncertainty about the impact of US tariffs on India. In response to a prolonged downturn in diamond prices, Gem Diamonds’ own portfolio has shrunk over the years — probably for the best, as it made some ill-advised forays when money was plentiful.
A notable example was Ghaghoo in Botswana, developed at a cost of nearly $100m, which never achieved steady-state production. Gem now holds only one mine: Letšeng in Lesotho. Last year Letšeng, where some of the world’s biggest diamonds have been unearthed over the years, retrenched about a quarter of its staff while Gem Diamonds executives took a pay cut. But, as Elphick points out, this is now the only diamond mine still operating in Lesotho. Elsewhere in the industry, Anglo American has impaired the value of De Beers by $3.5bn over two years and is courting buyers for it.
In May, Lucapa Diamonds was put into administration, and Petra Diamonds held another rights issue to try to manage its mountain of debt. The focus now is on conserving cash and protecting shareholder value through “this challenging time in the diamond industry”, Elphick says.
LIFE OF CLIFFORD
Elphick studied commerce and accounting at the University of Cape Town before joining Anglo American in 1986. Two years later he was seconded to E Oppenheimer & Son as Harry Oppenheimer’s personal assistant. He later became MD of E Oppenheimer, but left in 2005 to start his own diamond business, taking several De Beers executives with him. He bought Letšeng from JCI-Matodzi and used it as the foundation for a bigger diamond company that at one time held interests in Angola, Botswana, the DRC, Indonesia and Australia. He is also non-executive chairman of Zanaga Iron Ore.
