Market sentiment recovers at ODC

Frears
Frears

State-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) says market sentiment improved at its first auction of the year held in Gaborone recently with healthy demand for rough stones.

Although the company auctioned fewer gemstones compared to the first sale of last year, appetite from buyers was much improved from the soft demand experienced in the last quarter of 2015 when the company had to cancel the last two auctions of the year.

In response to BusinessWeek enquiries, ODC Managing Director Toby Frears said in the January 2016 auction they sold 216,000 carats for $44.4 million (P515 million), including a single 184-carat stone, which sold for $4.8 million (P55.7 million).

Editor's Comment
Depression is real; let's take care of our mental health

It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...

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