Beneficiation: A Road Worth Traveling, But Destination Difficult To Find

(idexonline.com) - A conversation with the minerals and mining minister of an African diamond-producing company a couple of months ago really served to highlight the point at which beneficiation has arrived. And I am not sure that road traveled so far is particularly impressive. A decade has passed since then South African President Thabo Mbeki really brought the issue to the attention of the global diamond industry. That's rather ironic, of course, since his country has arguably achieved the least in this respect. From a Western perspective, I suspect the feeling is that an awful lot has been achieved to the point that it is felt by many that not much more needs to be done. Then there are many people who claim that the experience has proven that beneficiating African stones cannot profitably be achieved. They argue that since a massive infrastructure already exists in India for manufacturing diamonds, then there is little point in building whole new manufacturing centers in African states. The cost of creating a manufacturing base in African producing states, along with training staff and carrying out the actual cutting and polishing work is, indeed, very high and the per carat price is higher than that for goods polished in India.