05 Apr 2022

Lucara Botswana’s success is a result of the company’s willingness to embrace and incorporate new technology into the mine’s design, Lucara chief executive officer, Ms Eira Thomas has said.

“The mine’s success was due to its modernisation of its sales process with clearer and noble partnership with HP, which has been critical in ensuring that the company maximized the value of the resource for all its stakeholders including Batswana,” said Ms Thomas at ground breaking ceremony and celebration of the mine’s ten years of existence in Letlhakane Monday,

“That is not the entire story, our success is owing to the very special geological diamond that is Karowe, a precious stone,” she further said.

Ms Thomas noted that by early 2015 Karowe had already gained reputation as a producer of important stones of large, high value, type II gem diamonds.

She said Karowe contributed 25 per cent of the world’s largest most valuable diamonds and accounted for four diamonds in the world’s top 10 of all large exceptional diamonds reported dating back to 1893.

“It is a moment that calls for reflection, celebrating the many achievements of an extra ordinary diamond mine, now entering its tenth year of continuous operation,” she said.

She said Karowe had mined and sold over 3.5 million carats with general revenues approaching US$2 billion.

Karowe mine, she noted, was the first and only mine reported in diamond mining history to have ever recovered three diamond in excess of 1 000 carats.

Ms Thomas indicated that when the mine began to regularly recover exceptional gem diamonds in excess of 50, 100, 200, 300 and even 500 carats, they came to understand how special the deposit was.

She noted that the mine had recovered a staggering 26 diamonds greater than 300 carats, seven over 500 carats including three greater than a thousand that were recovered in 2015, 2019 and 2021 respectively.

“No other diamond mining in the world has achieved that,” she said.

Ms Thomas said the mine was extremely proud that 98 per cent of its workforce were Batswana with 30 per cent  being females.

The mine, she said, was commemorating the beginning of a new chapter whereby they would entrust half a billion dollars towards the extension of the mine’s operations underground and gain access to the most valuable part of orebody.

Mine life would be extended to at least 24 years, adding conservatively another US$4 billion in additional revenues, she said.

For his part the Minister of Minerals, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi said mining was a critical component of Botswana’s economy and the country had a symbiotic relationship with diamond mines like Lucara.

Government, he said, therefore worked hard to ensure there was a conducive environment for investments in mining to prosper.

He noted that government was continually improving itself so that it could catch up with ever changing world of technology and better ways of mining.

Mr Moagi said Botswana’s Minerals Policy had finally been adopted by Parliament on March 31, 2022, noting that it solidified government’s commitment, plan to develop and manage minerals to the benefit of Batswana.

He said in order to modernise local minerals legislation and to align it to policy aspirations, the Diamond Cutting Act Amendment Bill, Precious and Semi-precious Stones Protection Amendment Bill were passed before Parliament on August 16, 2021.

Mr Moagi said Amendment of Mines and Minerals Act was also in progress as government was positioning itself to make Botswana a conducive environment for mining whilst achieving its goal of being the mining destination of choice. ENDS