Diamantaires convene for beneficiattion pitso

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Friday April 1, 2011 00:00

 

The pitso, which will be attended by over 250 people including 70 delegates from around the world, is the first-ever conference to be convened in the country on beneficiation as Botswana seeks to become an international diamond trading centre. In an interview with Mmegi, the Chairman of the Botswana Diamond Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Mervin Lifshitz, said discussions would centre on measures and policies to ensure value addition to Botswana diamond production and the creation of more downstream industries.

'What we want to see is discussions of the problems that we have in the industry,' Lifshitz said. 'We want to understand, as stakeholders in the industry, what problems we face and how we can come up with solutions for these challenges.

'How do other stakeholders, both in the country and outside, join together to contribute to the development of the country as well as our businesses?'  The objectives of the pitso are to conduct an intensive discussion on measures and policies to create the greatest domestic added value and opportunities for Batswana through diamond beneficiation, he said. It is part of the 2011 Presidents' Meeting of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA).

The pitso will be co-hosted by the Botswana Diamond Manufacturers Association (BDMA), the Botswana Diamond Hub, the International Diamond Manufacturers Association and the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA). Key government officials and business leaders, professionals involved in diamond beneficiation, opinion makers and policy makers, as well as a group of foreign diamond manufacturers will attend the pitso that will be co-moderated by researcher and doctoral student Letsema Mbayi and industry commentator Chaim Even-Zohar.  The main participants will include the Acting Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe, the EEO of the Diamond Trading Company Varda Shine, renowned economist Keith Jefferis, the Managing Director of BIDPA Tebogo Seleka, and Professor Roman Grynberg of BIDPA.

The Botswana diamond manufacturing industry blossomed in 2006 with the licensing of 12 new polishers and cutters, creating 3, 000 direct jobs and ancillary sectors like banking, security and transport. Although the industry is growing with businesses becoming more viable, Lifshitz feels the greatest challenges they face is that they are still detached from the rest of the market both geographically and operationally.

'The polishing and cutting business are increasing and becoming more viable in Botswana,' he said. 'The situation has also been helped by the fact that we are now getting more suitable types of rough from DTC.

'However, some of the challenges that we still face as an industry is that we are still far away from the rest of the international market and our costs are still relatively high.'  Efforts to make Botswana a world diamond trading centre have led to government and De Beers haggling over local marketing and beneficiation of diamonds mined in Botswana over the last few years. Core to its concession to the government, De Beers agreed to move the entire aggregation of its international diamond production to Gaborone. De Beers postponed the relocation in 2008 on account of the global economic downturn and subsequently announced that the move would take place by the fourth quarter of 2010.  The world's biggest diamond miner is currently negotiating a new marketing contract with the government regarding diamonds mined by Debswana, the joint venture company of De Beers and the Botswana Government.  The current agreement, which allows all Debswana production to be sold within the framework of the DTC sight system, expired at the end of December but was extended through to the end of March while talks continue.