Speaking at the Rough Diamond Conference in Israel on Tuesday, the Chief Minerals Officer in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Mooketsi Jongman, said Botswana will only polish stones worth US$550 million a year by 2009, an insignificant amount in the multi-billion dollar industry. Infact, according to a report by Mining Weekly, Jongman said Botswana wants to shed its image of being a predominantly mining country.
"The time has come to build (our) diamond industry," he said. He said Botswana does not intend to be a threat to other diamond centres as its aim was to polish only a small amount of rough diamonds. "The current target is to polish $550-million worth by 2009. It is difficult to understand how this could upset the balance in other centres," he said. Jongman's remarks came against the backdrop of fears by traditional polishers that the decision by southern African diamond producing countries to venture into cutting and polishing of rough diamonds in line with their beneficiation strategies will significantly affect their operations due to less supplies. Speaking at the same conference which ended on Tuesday, DTC MD Varda Shine confirmed that major diamond polishing centres will see less supply in coming years due to efforts by southern African nations to develop their own polishing centres. "There will be centres that will see less goods in the future," Shine told the diamond conference in Tel Aviv. The beneficiation process is a move by southern African countries to benefit from mining as well as polishing activities. This is done by encouraging manufacturers from the major world centres to set up polishing plants in southern Africa, including Botswana and Namibia, transferring technology and skills to these countries and enabling them to reap fuller benefits from their high value commodity.
