19 Dec 2019

The Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Mr Lefoko Moagi says Botswana’s aspects of the Diamond Industry value chain are more developed than others compared to elsewhere in the world.
Answering a question in Parliament, the Minister said the upstream processes like mining were developed, while the downstream processes like jewellery making were still at infancy.
Mr Moagi said the upstream components of the value chain comprised of prospecting, mining and processing which had matured.
He said the country currently had world-class diamond mines operating and using state of the art technology for mining and recovery of diamonds, citing the recovered exceptionally large stones like Lesedi la Rona, the Constellation and Sewelo.
He further explained that the country’s citizens had unbeatable skills in the mining and processing of diamonds as their mines were managed by citizens with expatriates only brought in for areas of specializations.
He further clarified that the midstream included sorting, valuation and sales, whose portion in the value chain had grown in the country since the advent of Botswana Diamond Valuing Company (BDVC).
He added that the relocation of sales activities of Diamond Trading Company International to Botswana in 2013, and the setting up of the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB) had ensured growth in the sales component of the value chain in Botswana.
Government, according to Mr Moagi, had made a deliberate decision to ensure that Diamonds produced in Botswana were sold in Botswana, save for a few exceptions where extensive global marketing of the diamond was required.
He said the establishment of privately owned mines like Lucara Botswana, Karowe Mines and the establishment of Okavango Diamond Company,  a company wholly owned by government to market a portion of Debswana production had further ensured growth in the sales portion of the value chain in Botswana.
He also described the downstream component of the diamond value chain as including rough diamond manufacturing which is cutting and polishing including the sale of polished jewellery manufacturing and ultimately the consumer.
This component of the value chain, the minister said, was still at the infancy stage and was still being facilitated by the government through a dedicated supply of rough diamonds in order to build sustainable operations locally.
The MP for Mmadinare Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi had wanted the Minster to explain the full chain across the Diamond industry continuum in Botswana focusing on the upstream-production, midstream-sales and downstream-retail. BOPA