Diamond revenues to rise 17%

In his State of the Nation Address on Monday, President Ian Khama said the diamond market has shown improvement but remains sluggish.  “At the end of September 2013, the average diamond price was 3 percent higher than for the same period in 2012. Carat sales and revenue for 2013 are forecast to be 20% and 17% above that of 2012,” he said.

In 2012, Debswana, which distributes 80% of its revenues to government, mined 20.2 million carats. This year, Debswana targets to increase production by 10% to 22 million carats although sales could end up higher due to stockpile sales. He said that the diamond cutting and polishing sector has continued to grow, employing 3,651 as of August 2013. Eleven additional companies have been licensed, bringing the total number to 27. As a result DTC Botswana targets to sell $770 million worth of diamonds to local manufacturers this year from  $618 million in 2012.