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 same period last year.
The increase was mostly the result of higher output from the country’s main producer, according to 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 the whole of 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.
