GJEPC Mines to Markets: Local Beneficiation and its Impact

Details of the local beneficiation moves by different African governments and their impact on the distribution channels for rough diamonds were presented to GJEPC’s Mines to Markets Conference attendants in Mumbai.

Botswana’s Minister of Minerals and Energy, P.H.K. Kedikilwe, discussed the “strategic shift” from concentrating on the production and wholesale export of rough diamonds to development of a secondary diamond industry as being a time “to explore opportunities to forge strategic alliances and partnerships with the traditional diamond centers of the world, elite cutting and polishing companies and other industry stakeholders.”

Revealing that a group from the country was currently training at a polishing factory in Bangkok, he said that employment in this sector was expected to grow to 3,500 when all the polishing plants in Botswana were fully operational. However, in response to questions, he clarified that all rough mined by De Beers across the world was expected to come to the new sorting facility in the country for distribution.

Jaime Aguinaldo, Angola’s Deputy Prime Minister, presented an overview of the economic and political developments in the country, noting that the political stability and robust economic growth under the present regime was paving the way for foreign companies to partner the government in developing the diamond industry locally.

Aguinaldo said that contrary to much of the currently popular economic theory, state intervention in the economy in Angola had created a base on which public-private partnerships could now help develop different sectors of the economy.

According to Aguinaldo, Angola is trying to organize the informal sector with people involved in alluvial mining and develop kimberlite mining in these areas. He took the opportunity to announce that Angola was hosting a world diamond conference in 2009.

The third speaker, Dr. Abiel Mngomezulu, South Africa’s Deputy Director General of Minerals Policy and Promotion, discussed the framework of the Diamond Act which will soon be legislated in the country and the State Diamond Trader (SDT) that is being set up under it.

All producers within the country would be required to offer their rough diamonds to the SDT who would purchase 10 percent of the produce for local beneficiation, or as decided by the government based on current local demand. The SDT may also import rough diamonds from other countries for local manufacture. He added that more details would be revealed when the Act was presented by government on May 20.