Diamond beneficiation still viable � Mokaila
Oageng Batenegi | Thursday July 21, 2016 18:00
Mokaila told parliament recently that his ministry therefore continues to engage concerned stakeholders to improve the operating environment.
“And diamond sales were off to a good start this year. The first four sales of the year amounted to diamonds worth $343 million,” he said.
But the local diamond industry has not been spared from recent global economic difficulties, as Mokaila earlier hinted. He said last year, the supply of diamonds to manufacturing companies dropped to $502.16 million worth of rough diamonds. That was from a significant $936.36 million recorded in 2014.
Mokaila said the difficulties in the global diamond market affected some local manufacturing companies. He said Diamond Manufacturing Botswana and Teemane Manufacturing Company closed in 2015 and were replaced by Signet and KGK Diamonds.
“Chow Tai Fook also closed early this year, due to similar challenges. There are therefore only 19 operational diamonds manufacturing companies at the moment; employing just 2,000 people,” said Mokaila.
When explaining the local diamond beneficiation process, Mokaila said manufacturing companies are supplied with diamonds on contractual basis by De Beers. He said the contracts normally run for a period of three years.
He added that the current contracts started in 2015 and will end in 2018. “During the 2012-2015 contract periods we had about 21 licensed companies”, Mokaila said. He however said the contract of one company, Life Diamonds, was terminated in 2013 due to breach of contract. The history of diamond beneficiation in Botswana started in the early 1980s.
There was only one factory, followed by another 10 years later. The government licensed additional manufacturing factories after 2006. Employment opportunities in the industry were estimated at 3,319 by 2011.
When diamond allocation to these companies was increased from $550 million to $800 million in 2012, factories were increased to 21.
Meanwhile, mineral beneficiation can be described as a process of adding value to the rough diamonds through various stages of production.