According to Mmegi Online, Botswana sightholder Rand Diamonds, a subsidiary of US luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co., has stated that it will go ahead with expansion plans of its Botswana diamond operations.



Tiffany's Vice President James Fernandez, who visited Botswana last week, stated that Rand Diamonds has no plans to reconsider the construction of its close to $5 million diamond polishing factory adjacent to DTC Botswana in Gaborone. The building is expected to be completed by March 2011.



Rand Diamonds is the only diamond cutting and polishing company with a Motswana shareholder. McLean Letshwiti, who owns a 25% stake in Rand Diamonds, noted. "We have not retrenched like the others, and we going ahead with all our original plans."



In the meantime, the Tiffany Group announced that worldwide net sales had declined by 18% due to the recession especially in the US.



During his visit to Botswana, VP Fernandez noted that there was no retrenchment of staff at Rand Diamonds because Tiffany directly buys what the diamond company cuts and polishes according to the group's demands.



Besides De Beers through DTC, Tiffany's also sources rough diamonds from diamond miners such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Alrosa. Tiffany's, which was formed in 1887, has close to three billion in sales annually with 200 luxury jewelry retailers in 21 countries.



Tiffany’s started to cut and polish diamond jewelry in 2000 and now runs operations in Gaborone, Antwerp, South Africa, Namibia, India, China and Vietnam. It also plans to open a new diamond polishing factory in Mauritius.