Debswana output jumps on market recovery
Brian Benza | Friday July 21, 2017 15:30
Output figures provided by parent company, Anglo American yesterday show that Debswana production increased by 14% to 5.9 million carats when compared to the same period in 2016.
“Orapa’s production increased by 44% driven by the ramp-up of Plant 1, which was previously on partial care and maintenance in response to trading conditions in late 2015. This was marginally offset by Jwaneng where production decreased by three percent,” Anglo said. Anglo owns 85% of De Beers, which is a joint equal partner in Debswana with government.
The contribution from Debswana along with throughput from the new mine in Canada helped De Beers’ rough diamond production increase by 36% to 8.7 million carats in line with the higher production forecast for 2017, “reflecting stable trading conditions as well as the contribution from the ramp-up of Gahcho Kué in Canada”.
In the first six months of the year, Debswana’s production is now up six percent to 11.12 million carats when compared to the same period last year.
Debswana target to produce about 20.5 million carats in 2017, with 15% of the output sold directly to the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC).
Last week, ODC said it registered a nine percent rise in revenues to $309 million (P3.1 billion) in the first half of the year. ODC deputy managing director Marcus ter Haar told BusinessWeek that the company held five auctions since January in which 1.8 million carats of diamonds were sold.
The volumes of carats sold were marginally higher (three percent) than the same period in 2016.
ODC, which will hold 10 tenders in 2017, was created to help Botswana develop its own price book through the independent window outside of De Beers’ channels. ODC buys partially sorted diamonds from De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DGSS) and then sorts the goods into its own sales assortment before inviting its customers to view and purchase the stones through an auction process.