The two are partners in the AK6 project. "It makes no sense to African Diamonds, our local partner Wati or to the people of Botswana that the benefits from developing the mine should be denied," AFD chairperson John Teeling said yesterday in a strongly worded statement read at the Botswana Resource Conference. "We have declared a dispute and will go to arbitration in Botswana," he added. Meanwhile De Beers has rejected the African Diamonds position.AFD managing director, James Campbell said that De Beers proposed that the project is not viable, owing to doubts over power supplies but refused to sell its stake. After finding the terms of the mining licence that the government offered last month favourable, AFD said that it offered to buy out De Beers' majority stake at a 'generous price'. The offer was rejected.
"We had expected to develop AK6 with De Beers, but its agenda differs from ours. De Beers, while not being prepared to proceed with the project on the grounds of viability is not prepared to sell to African Diamonds to allow us to proceed immediately."
