P40m diamond transfer facility complete

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday February 19, 2010 00:00

The transfer facility which will be operational from April 1st will ensure that there is high level security during the course of transferring diamonds within and out of the country.

In an interview with the Business Week the Coordinator of the Diamond Hub, Jacob Thamage said in due course the facility will also include other high value commodities such as huge sums of money, and other value commodities such as gold.

 According to Thamage, diamonds from the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB) and independent producers will be transferred through this facility which is in a secluded and enclosed area near the airport. Other security features include a road from DTCB to the facility; which will only be functional when such commodities are transported. It also houses CCTV cameras which will be operated from DTCB, but if there are security glitches that require a need for the cameras to be operated from elsewhere in the world, the diamond hub is in a position to do that.

Thamage says, at first the facility was being financed by the Debswana Diamond Company at the tune of P25 million, however due to the global economic downturn there were delays which saw the government of Botswana under the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources take over the project. Responding to why the cost swelled from that amount to about P40 million, Thamage said the change came as a result of the establishment of the Civil Aviation Authority that required certain standards hence an increase in the amount.

In an effort to get the maximum value from its diamond, the Hub is also looking into establishing a jewellery-manufacturing industry to make Gaborone a competitive diamond centre that will help in employment creation and of course economic diversification.

'Our aim is to perform beyond diamond exploration and mining, there is more to the pipeline that can be done. We are still at the beginning, we envisage to be at the end as well- and that is through jewellery retail,' Thamage said.

He said they are at preliminary stages of negotiations with a Swiss Watch Company and an Indian jewellery company that would help the country not only mine diamonds but add value to them as well. He said they envisage setting up a watch manufacturing company though they have not put a time line to the project yet. However, he said preparations to see it taking off are underway as they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (last year) with the University of Botswana Faculty of Engineering to have its students going for professional internships with the Swiss Watch Company.

The independent marketing channel is part of a strategy decided in 2002 to make the country shift from being a producer to a world diamond centre by facilitating the development of downstream industries commonly known as mineral beneficiation. It (mineral beneficiation) entails the transformation of a mineral to a higher value product, which can be consumed locally or exported. Government has realised that the country's main mines, which has been producing for over 30 years might be exhausted, hence revenue may reduce drastically. This created the need to look for other alternatives like a diamond centre and a viable and sustainable market that will survive beyond the lifespan of Jwaneng and Orapa mines; and this will be realized through the diamond hub through having a rough and polished trading centre; cutting and polishing centre; jewellery manufacturing and retail; and ancillary business.