Leviev Turning to De Beers for Rough for Namibia Plant

Israeli diamond tycoon Lev Leviev is holding talks with arch-rival De Beers for the supply of larger diamonds for his Namibian polishing plant since the stones he is mining off the coast of the country are too small, said a senior source at Leviev's LLD.

Leviev opened LLD Diamonds Namibia in the capital of Windhoek to great fanfare last year as Africa's largest diamond cutting and polishing plant, saying that in contrast to De Beers he was prepared to keep Namibia's diamonds in the country and create jobs for locals rather than export them and not give the country any added value operations.

Less than a year after the beginning of mining operations off Namibia's coast at the mouth of the Orange River, however, Leviev's Sakawe Mining Corporation (Samicor) admits the stones it is mining are too small for the polishing plant.

"It is not very easy to find the right size diamonds in the concession we have," the LLD source said. "The diamonds we are finding are 0.3-0.35 carats in size. For De Beers it is easier since their concession is further south and the diamonds they are mining are bigger.

"Unlike De Beers we did not spend a lot of time on exploration activities. They have done that [exploration] more than us. This is what we should have done and should still do and are considering it.

"We are holding talks with De Beers about the supply of diamonds [to the polishing plant]," the source said.

Despite the problem of securing the right size stones, Leviev's polishing plant is "well ahead of expectations", according to the LLD source. "In all aspects – production, workers' skills, satisfaction with output – the plant is doing well."

Samicor uses mining vessels with the latest equipment to find alluvial diamond deposits on the seabed and then vacuum them up.