Namibia is looking to emulate Botswana's international trade in diamonds by selling a portion of the minerals mined in the country by Namdeb Diamond Corporation from next year.This will come into effect, pending the establishment of a company that will directly sell the precious stones, Mines and Energy Minister Isak Katali was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Since last year, the government has been negotiating with De Beers to establish a solely state-owned diamonds marketing company, Katali told The Southern Times.

The minister said negotiations are expected to be completed by December 2014.

For the company to operate there has to be an agreement with De Beers. We are negotiating for some of diamonds that Namibia has a share to be marketed separately. Negotiations are set to end in December and an agreement has to be reached for us to proceed, the minister said.

Namibia and the world's leading diamond company De Beer are equal partners in the country's main diamond producer, Namdeb, and according to the weekly newspaper, are yet to renew a diamonds marketing pact, which expired in December 2013.

He explained that Namibia seeks to emulate Botswana by directly marketing its own diamonds.

Botswana established state-owned Okavanago Diamond Company, which started selling 13 percent of the country's diamonds in December 2013, following a 10-year marketing agreement with the world's leading diamond company De Beers.

As part of the deal, De Beers has transferred its London-based rough diamond sales operations to the Botswana capital, resulting in diamonds mined from South Africa, Namibia and Canada, being aggregated and sold to sight holders in Gaborone.

According to the report, Namibia has no immediate plans to insist on splitting output on the same equal shareholding structure in Namdeb.

It would depend on what we would be able to market ourselves. Obviously not 50:50 and at the moment there is no agreed amount or percentage. We are being guided by the Botswana example, Katali said.