Situated in Windhoek’s Northern Industries is a factory that cuts and polishes locally produced diamonds.
For those who do not know what is done inside the closed doors and gates of LLD Diamonds Namibia they will be tempted to think that the place was “dead”.
However, there was a lot of activity inside the factory, albeit in an orderly manner and stone silence.
Taking Rough & Polished through the processes of diamond cutting and polishing was the factory general manager Jordan Kazohua, who said the manufacturing of gems included three series of operations: the splitting or cleaving; the cutting, and the polishing.
The rough stones were first examined carefully to decide how they should be shaped to retain the utmost weight with the most brilliant effect.
Seated in front of revolving steel disks that turned noiselessly were male and female employees that sought to complete their tasks.
To the casual observer the polishing art appeared to be one requiring little skill or intelligence, but to acquire proficiency in the work required months if not years of diligent toil.
Indeed the monotonous toil would be rewarded by a glittering surface from the hardest stone.
Kazohua said LLD Diamonds Namibia was one of the first companies to start up a factory in the southern African country and had trained up to 500 people in the art of diamond manufacturing since 2004.
“With every year that passes, we are cognisant that new processes and procedures are constantly being developed across the world,” he said.
“As such, it is vitally important to LLD Diamonds Namibia to remain on the cutting edge of skills development.”
LLD Diamonds Namibia managing director Kombadayedu Kapwanga also said that the factory was cutting and polishing about 2000 carats of rough diamonds every month.
This translated to 24 000 carats per annum.
He said the factory was now operating at almost full capacity having been briefly placed under care and maintenance four years ago as a result of the global economic recession.
“The uniqueness of our company is that it is one of the companies that employs lots of Namibians in cutting and polishing of diamonds,” Kapwanga said.
He said that LLD Diamonds Namibia was selling its polished diamonds to traditional markets, which included Russia and the United States, adding that they were not yet heavily involved in the emerging Chinese and Indian markets.
The Namibian government said last year that the local diamond industry should pull up its socks and increase manufacturing in the country.
Mines and Energy minister, Isak Katali said the government expected factories to cut and polish at least 90 per cent of diamonds and do less preparation abroad.
Kapwanga noted that the local diamond and manufacturing sector was still maturing and there was also need to increase the level of rough supplies to cutters and polishers.
The Namibian government had resolved not to grant any new cutting licences to protect the sector against stiff competition from other established centres around the world where labour was cheap and skills were well developed.
"We believe that we can expand jobs and transfer real skills by taking care of the factories that are now on the ground instead of splitting the cake into many small pieces that in the end would result in many failed businesses and turn our dream of establishing a vibrant centre into a white elephant," Katali said.
He said the diamond manufacturers should create Namibian jewellery brands and support the already existing jewellers.
LLD Diamonds does not see itself setting up a jewellery manufacturing plant - at least for now.
It recently acquired state of-the-art equipment to boost its operations and would be happy if the Namibia Diamond Trading Company increased the number of stones it supplied to polishers as well as buy the stones at lower prices to help boost its bottom line.
The filling of factory positions with locals was also regarded as a huge development given that the company previously relied on expatriates.
LLD Diamonds Namibia has indeed made significant strides towards the development of the local diamond manufacturing sector, although it is still in its infancy.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
