Israeli Diamond Portal Reports:Initial Funding Provided for the South African State Diamond Trader

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 17, 2008 – The South African government has provided the State Diamond Trader (SDT) with initial funding of $8.2 million.

The SDT is supposed to purchase 10% of the country’s rough diamond production and hand it over to domestic diamond polishing companies. The country produces 14.5 million carats of rough diamonds annually.

The Industrial Development Corporation confirmed that it will transfer $125 million to the SDT in order to finance the acquisition of diamonds.

Antwerp Facets reports that the initial funding is made up of $4.4 million for buying rough diamonds, $1.9 million for a revolving credit facility, and the remainder is allocated for plant, infrastructure and other fixed costs. SDT Chairperson Linda Makatini noted that the company will need to be independent by June as De Beers terminates the help it was offering through former Diamdel employees.