The Voice (Francistown)
18 March 2008
Francistown — President Festus Mogae is scheduled to open the Diamond Trading Company (Botswana), which promises to make the country a premier diamond marketing and selling centre, on Tuesday next week.
DTC Botswana, is a joint venture between the world's biggest mining company, De Beers, and the government. It was established as part of the signing of new mining lease agreements between the two parties in May 2006. Constructed to the tune of P410 million (US$83 million) wholly financed by De Beers, DTC Botswana has a state of the art technology, developed at DTC International Research and Development Centre in the UK, costing P69 million.
DTC Botswana Managing Director, Brian McDonald described the delivery of the technology as "another milestone in the establishment of DTC Botswana and will help to ensure that the company becomes the catalyst in building a sustainable downstream diamond industry in Botswana". Diamonds will be sorted at the facility and sent to DTC International in London for aggregation before they are returned for distribution to local sight holders. Aggregation, which is the mixing of diamonds from all De Beers mines, will be done in Botswana next year. It is estimated that 3 000 jobs will be created by the establishment of DTC Botswana, and already 16 sight holders have been issued with three-year contracts (2008 - 2011) after meeting all requirements.
DTC Botswana Board of Directors was appointed in September last year. Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources and DTC Botswana Board member, Kago Moshashane has said the establishment of the company will help transfer skills and technology into the country.
The industry is also expected to spur growth in other areas such as finance, security and telecommunications.
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