Speaking to Mmegi, Nkate confirmed that he met the Leviev representatives when they were in Gaborone recently. He said he would support proposals from any investor seeking to add value to the country’s mineral resources.
When they were in Botswana, the Leviev representatives met officials of the Ministry of Minerals Energy and Water Affairs. However the Director of Mineral Affairs in the Ministry Jacob Thamage told Mmegi that the Leviev representatives were merely scouting for opportunities and have not put any definite proposal on the table.
Nevertheless industry sources have revealed to Mmegi that Leviev is eyeing 10 percent of Botswana’s rough diamond production to establish diamond cutting, polishing and manufacturing.
Minerals Minister Boometswe Mokgothu has told Mmegi in an interview that Botswana produced 30 million carats of diamonds in 2003 while the rest of the world produced three million only.
Mokgothu said the 10 percent of three million carats Leviev wants from the Botswana diamond production is feasible.
This is because Botswana’s agreement with De Beers provides a window to avail about ten percent of its production of rough diamond for beneficiation.
Botswana diamonds are supplied solely to De Beers. Mokgothu was quick to provide a proviso that such an amount of Botswana’s rough diamonds production to Leviev would only be available through the international market rather than directly from the mines.
Already Leviev has gone into partnership with the Namibian government through a holding company called Sakawe Mining Corporation (Samicor). Other stakeholders in the venture are a black empowerment entity consisting of the Namibia Youth Service and Samicor Employees Trust.
The partnership is meant to explore and mine Namibia’s offshore diamond deposits through an agreement signed at the beginning of this month. Samicor has started exporting the first batch of diamonds sourced from its estimated 12 million carats concessions.
The Leviev Group is a former client of De Beers and is owned by Israeli billionaire and diamond tycoon, Lev Leviev.
Samicor sister company, LLD Diamonds which is part of the Leviev is about to open one of the biggest diamond polishing companies in Namibia at a site in Windhoek.
The venture is to start production in May this year. The polishing concern is expected to process up to 25 000 carats of diamonds per month. The Leviev Group has other polishing plants in Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ukraine and Armenia.
The company intends to start with an investment of $10 million and create 10,000 jobs in Botswana with more expected in due course.
