Lazare Kaplan Licensed to Polish Diamonds in Botswana

Lazare Kaplan International (LKI) had received a license from the Government of Botswana to cut and polish diamonds in the country. The company appointed Alfred Majaye Dube, Botswana's former ambassador to the United Nations, as managing director of Lazare Kaplan Botswana (Pty) Ltd. the wholly-owned subsidiary established to hold and operate the license.

Botswana, the world's largest producer of diamonds, has low-cost reserves sufficient to support long-term continuation of that role, and has recently designated local beneficiation of diamonds as a strategic economic priority, LKI said in a release Thursday.

Lazare Kaplan started cutting and polishing industry in the country in the early 1990s and continued until the sale of its local operation in 1998. It says it has since “actively considered” a return to the country.

“We are delighted to be resuming investment in Botswana as part of our core business, building on nearly two decades of friendship and constructive collaboration across a range of fields,” said Leon Tempelsman, Lazare Kaplan's president."

Alfred Majaye Dube was, until October 2005, Botswana's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. That posting represented the culmination of his career in the Botswana Foreign Service, including appointment as ambassador to several European countries by the age of 40.

In the course of his service he has acquired over 25 years' worth of hands-on experience with diamond matters, first as undersecretary (Minerals) in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, and later through management of both bilateral and multilateral initiatives such as the “Diamonds for Development” campaign that accompanied the global Kimberley Process certification scheme, to which he was appointed special envoy.