ODC sets first contract diamond sales for November

State-owned Okavango Diamond Company will start selling diamonds to contracted buyers next month, as it diversifies its sales channels under the government's new deal with De Beers, Managing Director Mmetla Masire said on Wednesday.ODC's allocation in the production of Debswana was increased to 30 percent from 25 percent in the new ten-year deal signed in February, with its share to reach 40 percent at the end of the agreement. A clause in the previous deal, which prevented ODC from directly competing with De Beers on contract sales, has fallen away. "We are targeting our first sales through this channel in November, with our first two being pilot sales before we go full scale on the third," Masire told a mining conference. Masire told Reuters in May that ODC aimed to sell about 40 percent of its supply through contract sales, with the balance to be sold through auctions, strategic partners and Botswana-based companies.The global diamond market is in a protracted downturn, with demand declining amid a supply glut and the rising popularity of lab-grown diamonds weighing on rough diamond prices. ODC in 2023 temporarily halted its rough stone sales as part of an industry-wide drive to reduce the glut. The company held an auction on September 25 but decided to hold on to its gems, citing 'conditions that could have resulted in a significant negative impact on the market'.ODC's revenues in 2024 were about 60 percent of the previous year due to the downturn, according to Masire, but the company was seeing some stability in the market. Its last three auctions delivered small positive margins, up from the double-digit losses at the same time last year. Botswana gets 30 percent of its revenues and 75 percent of its foreign exchange revenues from diamonds and the current market downturn saw the economy contract by three percent in 2024, with the IMF forecasting a further one percent contraction this year. Source: Reuters

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ODC sets first contract diamond sales for November