02 Jul 2013

The Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Eric Molale has emphasised the need for permanent secretaries and other stakeholders to appreciate the diamond mining industry which is the mainstay of the country’s economy.

He noted that with the Diamond Training Company (DTC) relocating to Botswana, it was important for people in high positions to understand the whole process of mining diamonds. Mr Molale said this during an interview after permanent secretaries’ tour of Jwaneng Mine recently.

“This is an educational tour for the permanent secretaries because it is important for people in high positions to understand the pipeline starting from mining the ore to the last stage of jewellery manufacturing,” he said. He said it was due to the fact that along the line each one of them would be involved and it was therefore imperative that they appreciated the whole process.

He said as accounting officers, they would be able to help drive the economy through their ministries' contribution to the diamond mining process. He said the ultimate goal was for Botswana and Africa as a whole to not only produce raw diamonds but be able to produce the finished product as well.

When briefing delegates, Jwaneng Mine general manager, Mr Albert Milton said the year was generally a good one for the mine because it was doing well in terms of safety, governance, internal controls as well as mining. “We have experienced one lost time injury but our average rate for such injuries is 0.5. We have also been picking minor injuries like finger injuries.”

He, however, noted that even though the continuous operations, which started in 1997, had increased production, the 2009 economic downturn had a negative impact on their production. He said this was due to the fact that they had to scale down production in line with demand.

He said even though the mine had not fully recovered from the recession, they were making strides in production. Mr Milton explained that last year, they had a 60 per cent truck and shovel effectiveness rate, which was determined by the availability and utilisation of the machinery.

He said in order to improve on this aspect, they engaged stakeholders and managed to come up with initiatives, which helped them achieve about 80 per cent effectiveness. On the slope failure that happened last year, the general manager noted that they had put up a programme to remediate the affected area.

“The failed zone has been blasted, the ramp has been completed and loading of failure material is progressing well,” he explained.ENDS