Editor’s Note
This article clarifies Okavango Diamond Company’s position regarding its recent sales tender, emphasizing the company’s characterization of the event as a strategic, non-emergency offering and its rationale for withholding goods.
(IDEX Online) – Okavango, Botswana’s state-owned diamond company, says its planned sale of 1 million rough carats last month was not “an emergency tender.”
And it says the fact that it didn’t sell a single stone didn’t mean it was a failure. Rather, it was the result of a “deliberate and prudent decision to withhold certain goods.”
The “closed” tender on September 25 was reportedly aimed at raising revenue for the government (something the company denies) which had been severely hit by the slump in demand for natural diamonds. But buyers weren’t prepared to pay the reserve prices.
It said the tender was scheduled back in July and was part of regular sales management, not a last-minute revenue-raising emergency.
The ad hoc tender was a marked departure from the norm. ODC usually holds about 10 scheduled online spot auctions annually for registered buyers, typically raising at least $60 million.
The company now sells 30 percent of the rough output from Debswana, the 50/50 joint venture between the Botswana government and De Beers.