Sierra Leone Posts Sharp Rise on Year in Exports in H1

Beny Steinmetz, the owner of Koidu Holdings.

(IDEX Online News) –Sierra Leone exported $102 million worth of diamonds in the first half of this year, a substantial rise on the $71 million of exports in the year-earlier period.

The increase was mostly the result of higher output from the country’s main producer, said the National Mineral Agency.

The government received $5.1 million in taxes from exports, in line with the mining code’s 5 percent tax on exports.

“At the end of the first half of 2013, exports exceeded those of 2012 by 42.95 percent, an improvement of $30.71 million,” Ibrahim Mohmed, who oversees the diamond sector at the NMA, told Reuters.

”The total diamonds exported amounted to 331,471 carats valued at $102,205,588,” he said. Sierra Leone exported 296,334 carats of diamonds in 2012.

A rise in production by Koidu Holdings, Sierra Leone’s only commercial pit mining operation, was behind the rise in the country's output.

Koidu is privately-owned by Israeli diamond trader Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources through its Octea diamond unit.