If the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change wins the 2019 General Elections and forms a government, it would consider adding other players into the diamond mining partnership which so far has been the exclusive preserve of De Beers. This was said on Wednesday by UDC President, Member of Parliament (MP) and for Gaborone Bonnington North Duma Boko when reacting to the National Budget 2016/2017 proposal. Boko said a UDC government would scrutinise all opportunities available to extract maximum value for the country’s diamond resources.
“We would reconsider that relationship, and if need be introduce other players from other countries” warned Boko.
De Beers group discovered the initial kimberlite in Northern Botswana in 1966, but government then pushed for a 50/50 partnership in 1969.
Boko’s statement is likely to draw keen interest from the global diamond industry given the importance of Botswana, one of the world’s biggest diamond producers by value. De Beers, a diamond mining monopoly has been leading the diamond exploration, mining, retail, trade as well as the industrial diamond manufacturing. However, the De Beers group derived more value from partneship with Botswana.
Research shows that global diamond production for 2001/2005 was approximately 840 million carats with a total value of $55 billion, for an average value per carat of $65. For this period, USSR/Russia ranks first in weight and second in value, but Botswana is first in value and third in weight, just behind Australia. This is the partnership that has enriched De Beers to the core and has seen Botswana also developing albeit reliant on diamond revenue.
De Beers group discovered the initial kimberlite in Northern Botswana in 1966, but government then pushed for a 50/50 partnership in 1969, after De Beers discovered a second largest kimberlite in the world, at Orapa pipeline. Since then the partnership has been flawless, with government enjoying royalties, dividends as well as tax money from the De Beers group. However, De Beers took the rough diamonds to Diamond Trading Company in London where they polished, cut the gems and manufactured them into refined jewelry which was also one of De Beers’s money spinners outside the Botswana partnership, until just a few years back when DTC was relocated here. Still, the diamond value chain has never benefitted Botswana, perhaps because government never saw it fit to develop the diamond value chain in Botswana to enhance beneficiation and to ensure that the couintry became a diamond hub, even with end diamond production.
