Botswana Might Approve Suitable Mining Proposals

Botswana said any mining venture presenting a good proposal to the country to compete with De Beers could be given the green light to mine, sort, cut and export diamonds.

The comments came just days after representatives from Israel’s Leviev Group held talks with top officials on diamond investment opportunities. Minister for Minerals and Energy Affairs Boometswe Mokgothu told parliament that De Beers does not have a monopoly over the mining of Botswana diamonds and its control over the sector was due purely to historical reasons.

“Any company is free to mine the diamonds and at the moment we have other companies prospecting for diamonds in the country. If they find deposits they would be given a license to mine,” Mokgothu told parliament. De Beers jointly owns the Debswana diamond company with the Botswana government. Debswana operates four diamond mines and the joint business mines and sorts diamonds. “Mining diamonds in the country is not a De Beers monopoly and the government encourages other companies to join the diamond sector,” Mokgothu said.

The Israeli investors from the Leviev Group of Companies (LGC) want to invest an initial $10 million and employ at least 10,000 people to begin with, according to media reports. The investors, who reportedly met senior officials and at least one Cabinet minister, intend to cut Botswana’s rough diamonds currently sold in its entirety by Debswana to the Diamond Trading Company. Leviev seeks access to about 10 percent of Botswana’s rough diamond production for his local cutting and jewelry manufacturing concern.

Mokgothu denied hosting the Leviev Group officials, saying they may have met some of his subordinates without his knowledge. But he said the Leviev proposal to cut, polish and manufacture jewelry in Botswana “is what the government is looking for as we want to add value to our minerals and generally create additional revenue and employment”.

He said Botswana’s trading agreement with De Beers provides a window to divert part of the local rough diamond production for value-adding activities should any investor come up with a serious proposal.

The Leviev Group has polishing businesses in Russia, India, China, South Africa, the Ukraine and Armenia. Botswana is the world’s largest diamond producing country mining about $2.5 billion annually.