By ‘Majirata Latela
The ministry of mining has reported that the auctioning of diamonds which was held in Maseru last month has been a success as the sale exceeded the revenue target.
The ministry’s principal secretary, Advocate Tšokolo Maina has indicated that some Basotho diamonds were not bought at the auction as they were very small and under the reserve price. They did not fetch any price even when they were grouped together.
“At the auction there were 10 licenced diamond dealers and there were 38 lots for all the 570 stones. The secret reserve price was M1 494 per carat.
“The target revenue was estimated to be M372, 200.95 and the number of sold carats was 227.81 over a total of 254.61 carats on all lots.
“The stones were all bought at M1 697 which is 1.73 percent beyond the reserve price. The total amount of money made of the sale of the diamonds is M378,650. 52.
Maina further said all 406 confiscated diamonds weighing 209.57 were all bought with 100 percent participation of the dealers while the surrendered 164 diamonds weighing 45.04 carats saw only 50 percent participation of the dealers.
He said even though surrendered diamonds were not all sold the revenue target they had set was M43,296.69 but the beat the target and sold the diamonds for a total amount of M50,452.05.
A diamond that was sold at the highest price of M14,977 was in lot 25 and weighing 2.5 carat. He said according to the report the tender was successful and all the sellers whose gems were sold got their money.
Maina further said the total 26.7 carat diamonds were withdrawn from the sale as they were very small. Another auction is to be held to sell them.
The intention of the auction was to clear the road for artisanal small scale mining. The ministry is also looking at extending amnesty policy by another three months to allow people to surrender more diamonds.
