Botswana President looks at Nam diamonds

Botswana President Ian Khama yesterday visited the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) with the aim of comparing the way Namibia sorts, values and sells its rough diamonds compared to the Diamond Trading Company of Botswana (DTCB).

The NDTC, which was formed in 2007, is a joint venture between the Government of Namibia (GRN) and De Beers that is part of a sorting, valuing and marketing agreement. The key focus of the NDTC is to develop a sustainable national downstream diamond industry in Namibia.

The NDTC’s key focus is to drive the growth of the domestic diamond processing industry and the creation of a sustainable down-stream diamond industry, with the aim of ensuring maximum, long-term value from Namibian diamonds through world-class sorting, valuing and sales practices in Namibia.

This strategy supports the development of new employment opportunities and a broadening of the skills-base of Namibian citizens.

Khama’s visit to NDTC follows a 10-year agreement, signed in September 2011 between the Government of Botswana and De Beers, in which the London-based Diamond Trading Company (DTC), as part of the agreement, will relocate its sales activities to Botswana by 2013.The diamond aggregation activities will relocate before the end of 2012. This agreement will now see the aggregation of production from De Beers’ mines and its joint venture operations world-wide, as well as sales to international and domestic Botswana Sight Holders, taking place in Gaborone. The purpose of DTCB is to make aggregated diamonds available for sale in Botswana for in-country processing as it supports the government’s economic imperative to drive job and value creation from the country’s diamond resources. This also follows after the renewal of a 25-year mining license for Debswana in May 2006.

In 2011, some N$4,4 billion (US$550) million rough diamonds were made available to diamantaires with operations in Botswana.