The Namibian government has set up a new diamond marketing company that will handle the sales of up to 15 per cent of the annual rough diamond production from Nam-Deb Holdings – a joint venture partnership between the Namibian government and De Beers.
Addressing parliament in Windhoek on Thursday, Namibian mines minister Obeth Kandjoze said Namibian Desert Diamonds (Namdia), was a 100% state-owned diamond sales and marketing company. It started operating on April 18, 2016.
Kandjoze said the company had signed a 10 year agreement to acquire 15 per cent of the annual diamond production from the Namdeb Holdings partnership, which, at current market rates, translated to annual export earnings of up to US$150 million (or N$2.1 billion).
He said Namdia had already received, and sold, its first purchase of diamonds through De Beers subsidiary, Namibian Diamond Trading Company (NTDC) in September.
“Namdia will for the first time in the entire history of the Namibian diamond industry be selling exclusively Namibian diamonds, with the primary objective of price discovery that will be used to inform government diamond policy, going forward,” the minister said.
However, he declined to disclose the names of the company’s customers and diamond beneficiaries saying the information was proprietary and therefore bounds by clauses of confidentiality between the parties to the agreements.
