Kimberley to house R100m jewellery factory

The city of Kimberley will be home to a R100 million factory that will focus on the production of gold and silver chains for export, announced the Northern Cape Premier's office earlier this week.
Funded by South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the project is an extension of the Northern Cape's Diamond Strategy which is aimed at keeping diamonds in the country and encouraging beneficiation.

According to the Northern Cape Provincial Government, the project will be run by Gold Chain Technology, a company that is structured between three partners: an Italian company by the name of Q-Quality, a black economic empowerment (BEE) company by the name of Solandra and a Northern Cape entity that was funded by Provincial Government.

The factory will focus on the production of gold and silver chains and will progressively escalate its production and employment. It is expected that in four year's time an estimated 300 people will be employed and a total of three tons of gold and five tons of silver will be processed by the factory.
The project is expected to have a tremendous impact on the economy of the Northern Cape and the country as a whole, with its potential to expand and to compliment existing and new ventures.

"This is a key opportunity for facilitating empowerment in the jewellery manufacturing sector, while continuing regional development among the poorest communities in this country," said Abel Malinga of IDC's mining Strategic Business Unit.

The project will also mark South Africa's entry into the lucrative world jewellery market. Currently annual gold retailing demand tops 2800 tons, translating into a R450 billion industry. Principle consumers include India (25 percent), the US (18 percent) and China (12 percent) with the major producers being India (19 percent), Italy (10 percent) and Turkey (9 percent).

According to the IDC Gold Chain Technology will also establish a jewellery manufacturing training facility that will train an estimated 460 people over the next five years.

"The bulk of the skills will be transferred from Italian technicians to locals with several future trainers acquiring machinery and equipment training in Italy," said the IDC.