Botswana's Debswana diamond sales jump 54% in first half of 2022

Lucara Diamond

29/07/2022 15:13

GABORONE, July 29 (Reuters) - Sales of rough diamonds by
Debswana Diamond Company jumped 54% in the first six months of
2022, Bank of Botswana statistics showed on Friday, driven by
strong jewellery demand in the key U.S. market as well tight
global rough diamond supply.
    Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American unit
 AAL.L  De Beers and Botswana's government sells 75% of its
output to De Beers, with the balance taken up by the state-owned
Okavango Diamond Company.
    According to data published by the central bank, sales of
diamonds from Debswana stood at $2.622 billion in the six months
to June compared to $1.703 billion in the same period last year.
    In local currency terms, rough sales jumped 68.4% to 31
billion pula due to a stronger dollar in the period. Central
bank data shows the pula has depreciated by around 5% against
the U.S. dollar in the six months to June 2022.
    Debswana accounts for almost all Botswana's diamond exports,
with Lucara Diamond Corp's  LUC.TO  Karowe mine being the only
other operating diamond mine in the country.
    Botswana gets about 30% of its revenue and 70% of its
foreign exchange earnings from diamonds. 
    The country's finance minister Peggy Serame said on
Wednesday that a 1.8-billion-pula inflation-relief package,
which will be introduced in August, will not widen the annual
budget deficit due to the extra revenue from the stronger than
anticipated diamond sales in the first half of the year.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2Z85X9

 (Reporting Brian Benza in Gaborone; Editing by Anait
Miridzhanian and David Evans)
 ((Anait.Miridzhanian@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 66 05;))