In July 2007, the Namibian arm of Diamond Trading Company announced competitive selection among the country’s diamond cutting factories to be included into the first list of NDTC sightholders. At that time, Hard Stone Processing (Pty) Ltd (HSP) was already working in Namibia as an independent manufacturer and its factory successfully occupied a strong position among the leading sightholders turning into one of the three top diamond cutting companies in Namibia. Its CEO Burhan Seber gave this interview to Rough&Polished.
Botswana diamond miner, Debswana recently said that the temporary dip in diamond prices will likely see the company producing just below its target of 25 million carats for 2011. However, Esther Kanaimba-Senai, the Group’s Manager for Corporate and Public Affairs, told Rough&Polished in an interview that Debswana was not in trouble.
Malca-Amit is a full service courier company with a 21 year record of providing the highest quality personalised service and the most efficient logistic solutions for diamonds, jewelry, gold, coins, bank notes, and valuable documents. Our correspondent in Brussels caught up with Nigel Paxman, CEO of the Malca-Amit Group of Companies, to find out more about this company.Production figures released by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) for 2009 shows that Angola was the world’s fourth largest diamond producing country by value for the year.
Until 2009 the country was globally the fifth largest producer of diamonds by value, supplying 7-9 percent of world diamond output.
Angola hosts large diamond reserves, principally in the provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul.
The majority of Angola’s diamonds comes from alluvial deposits though state-owned mining company Endiama is confident that there could be large-scale deposits in shafts of volcanic rock throughout the country.
Russia was ranked as the largest diamond producer both in terms of volume and by value after ALROSA sustained near full capacity at its mines throughout the year.
KPCS said Russia’s output was valued at 2.34 billion USD from 34.759 million carats in 2009, compared with production of 2.51 billion USD from 36.925 million carats the previous year.
Canada was the second largest producer by value with a production of 1.47 billion USD from 10.946 million carats followed by Botswana, which fell from the pole position as the largest mining country by value in the world.
Its production fell 56 percent to 1.44 billion USD from 17.734 million carats as Debswana significantly reduced output during the recession.
Meanwhile, KPCS said the global diamond production by value fell 32 percent last year as prices took a nose-dive while miners were forced to reduce output due to the global economic slowdown.
It said production for the year was valued at 8.64 billion USD, compared with 12.73 billion USD in 2008.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Rough&Polished from Namibia
Rough&Polished
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