Diversified miner Anglo American’s De Beers subsidiary is serving to improve the group’s business profile by providing diversification and, most of the time, stability to its otherwise more closely correlated mining operations, reports risk assessment firm Moody’s in a recent report.

With an overall Baa2 negative rating, Anglo’s business is being buoyed by demand for diamonds – a sector which is almost entirely driven by consumers’ appetite for diamond jewellery which usually follows a different pattern to the demand for the commodities that Anglo produces such as copper, iron-ore, platinum group metals and coal.