Long-Term Hopes for De Beers Deal with Botswana
November 18, 24
(IDEX Online) - Botswana's new president said he was confident his country's long-standing deal with De Beers would endure, and said he was confident that, as partners, both sides would resolve "niggling issues" between them.
Duma Boko, who assumed officer after a surprise election victory last month, welcomed Al Cook, the De Beers CEO and Ducan Wanblad, CEO of its parent company Anglo American in Gaborone last week.
"We have a longstanding partnership which has benefited this country, which has carried on for those many years. We are confident that it will endure into the future," he told them, in a videoclip posted on the presidential Facebook page.
"Where there are any niggling issues, as I understand they have been, and there probably still are, we will work together as we should, as partners who work together along the way.
"To resolve those niggling issues, in the best manner possible. We will engage with each other in the utmost good faith."
Boko's predecessor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, reached a provisional agreement with De Beers over the diamond mining and sales agreement that is critical to the county's economy.
It included an increasing share of diamonds for the Botswana government - from the current 25 per cent to 50 per cent - phased over a decade, but the final deal has yet to be signed.
Matters remain complicated by Anglo's plans to sell off De Beers as it focuses on copper and other more profitable activities.
Responding to the new president's comments, Wanblad said: "Botswana is one of our proudest partnerships, one that we value very deeply and one that we are committed to through thick and thin.
"As partners, we sometimes have diverging views but we always have to have converging interests.
"And I really do believe that we stand committed to working faithfully and openly with the government in Botswana, driving forward what has been an incredibly good relationship and partnership with this country for over 50 years, for at least the next 50 years."
Pic, courtesy Presidency of Botswana, shows President Duma Boko greeting Duncan Wanblad and Al Cook.