31 Mar 2022

Batswana and local companies will now be able to actively participate in the mineral industry. 

Government, through the 2022 Botswana Minerals Policy, will ensure that Batswana and locally based companies are capacitated as well as empowered to facilitate their growth and sustainability.

That emerged from the Minerals Policy that Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi, presented before Parliament on Wednesday.

“The Minerals Policy provides for the mineral industry to support sustainable livelihoods of Batswana by creating for an environment which will provide for effective participation of citizens and local companies. It emphasises on capacity building and empowerment to facilitate growth and sustainability of Batswana and locally based companies,” Mr Moagi informed Parliament.

He explained that the 2022 Botswana Minerals Policy aimed to maximise national benefits from minerals while also providing a competitive environment for investment in the sector. 

He also told legislators that the policy was developed through broad based consultations involving nationwide tours and technical support from the Commonwealth Secretariat. 

The six-chapter document, he said focused on the situational analysis of the mineral sector, the business climate and investment attraction and development of different minerals, amongst others. He further said the policy looked at small scale mining, synthetic minerals, and monitoring and evaluation of implementation of the policy itself. 

From humble beginnings in the early 1970s to current large scale mining of diamonds, coal, soda ash, salt, iron ore, copper and nickel, gold and others, the mining industry had developed into the backbone of the economy of Botswana, he noted. 

“Given such importance of the minerals sector to Botswana, my ministry found it necessary to develop a Minerals Policy document that outlines government's intentions on developing the sector. The minerals industry is key to and the main driver of economic growth in Botswana. Economic growth is critical to wealth creation and associated job creation,” he said. 

Mr Moagi explained that the policy document defined four key roles played by government to regulate, promote or facilitate, provide service as well as invest in the development of the mining industry. 

“Government has been playing this role successfully over the years and has created separate investment vehicles such as the Okavango Diamond Company and the Minerals Development Company Botswana to ensure role clarity of the players,” he said. 

He added that government through the policy wanted to pursue maximum exploration of different minerals by the private sector in order to address the vulnerability to the economy caused by over reliance on diamonds. 

He further said the policy provided for security of tenure through clear, efficient and transparent processes in the administration and interpretation of the regulatory framework. 

Mr Moagi pointed that government would be required to regularly review and streamline administrative processes to reduce undue delay and cumbersome processes. 

He said the ministry, in collaboration with Botswana Chamber of Mines and the private sector, was undertaking a feasibility of setting up a base metal refinery in Botswana. 

He said preliminary findings had yielded positive results due to prospects for base metal mining along the Kgalagadi copper belt in the North western part of the country. 

The minister further informed the house that the policy would take into account current and emerging issues in the mineral sector, such as gender balance in the mining industry, health and safety, capacity building, stakeholders’ roles and protection of the environment. 

He added that other emerging issues included the advent of synthetic diamonds, beneficiation and value addition, citizen economic empowerment and local supply of goods and services. ends