Indian Jewelry » Botswana Diamond

The Republic of Botswana is one of the major diamond producers of the world. By value, it is the first in the world. With the support and help of De Beers it has been increasing its production further. Currently it is mining 2.5 billion worth of diamonds annually.
This African country is bordered by the Zambezi and Chobe rivers and surrounded by Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia. It has an area of 6,00,372 sq. kms., populated by 1.75 million people. The currency is Pula, sub-divided into 100 Thebes. Botswana is the source of the world's most valuable, lowest cost and most profitable production of rough gems, with probably the largest known reserves.

Diamond Exploitation & Development:
The history of Botswana's diamond industry is scarcely thirty eight years long since De Beers' geologists first discovered diamonds in Botswana. The announcement of a discovery at Orapa was made in 1967, the year after Botswana's independence. Development of the Drapa mine was completed and production commenced in 1971.

Within a very short time, plans were made to double Drapa's production and also to develop another smaller mine at nearby Letlhakane. These projects were completed in the mid-1970's and very shortly thereafter, the discovery of an even richer deposit at Jwaneng was announced. Development of the Jwaneng mine began in 1979 and it commenced commercial production in 1982. Within a few years, its capacity was expanded by the addition of a recrush circuit and then, in the early 1990's by the addition of a fourth treatment facility.

Orapa Leading Mine:
Almost as soon as that was completed, work began on planning a major expansion of Drapa to double its capacity again (from about 6 million carats per year to 12 million carats by the year 2000). This is one of the largest single diamond mining projects ever undertaken anywhere in the world. After formal launching qy the President of the country, the Drapa 2000 Project, Botswana's GDP went up by 10 per cent in the year 2000 and Drapa became the world's leading gem diamond producer

Wider Search Continuing:
Botswana has other smaller diamond mining projects too, but more importantly for the long term, the industry is expanding a great deal of effort and money in prospecting for new diamond deposits. A recent tally showed nearly 30 companies operating in 348 separate prospecting licence areas and their 'results are encouraging. More than 200 kimberlites have been discovered, most of them diamondiferrous and the count keeps on rising.

Joint Venture with De Beers:
All of Botswana's diamonds are produced by the Debswana Diamond Company, a 50:50 joint venture between De Beers and the Botswana Government. Debswana's production has grown steadily, In terms of carats, this places Botswana in the top three or four producing countries.
These sales agreement under which De Beers buys the entire diamond production of Botswana from Debswana has been renewed for another five years upto December 31,2005

Dependence on Diamonds:
Not only is Botswana the world's largest producer by value, it is also relatively more dependent economically upon diamonds than any other country in the world.

Long Term Expansion:
The Government of Botswana, De Beers and Debswana have announced the conclusion of negotiations for:
• The renewal of the mining lease held by Debswana over the Orapa Mine for a further period to June 2017; and.
• The commencement of a project to double the treatment capacity of Orapa to some 17 million tonnes a year from the year 2000. Orapa House, the diamond sorting headquarter of the Botswana Diamond Valuing Company, is located in Gaborone. The entire production of all the diamond mines of Botswana is being handled by this Undertaking.

Israel also Interested:
Botswana says - any mining venture presenting a good proposal to the country could be given the green signal to mine, sort, cut and export diamond. "What the government is looking for is that we want to add value to our minerals and generally create additional revenue and employment". Botswana's trading agreement with De Beers provides a window to divert part of the local rough diamond production for value-adding activities should any investor come up with a serious proposal.

The comments came just days after representatives from Israel's Leviev Group held talks with top officials on diamond investment opportunities. Minister for Minerals and Energy Affairs- Boometswe Mokgothu told parliament that De Beers does not have a monopoly over the mining of Botswana diamonds.

The Israeli investors from the Leviev Group of Companies (LGC) initially want to invest $10 million and employ at least 10,000 people to begin with. The investors, who reportedly met senior officials and at least one Cabinet Minister, intend to cut Botswana's rough diamonds currently sold entirely by Debswana to the Diamond Trading Company (DTC). Leviev seeks access to about 10 per cent of Botswana's rough diamond production for his local cu'tti'lg and jewellery manufacturing concern.
The Leviev Group has polishing businesses in Russia, India, China, South Africa, the Ukraine and Armenia. Trucks hauling waste rock at Jwaneng

Processing Ventures:
The Botswana Government had also set up a pilot diamond cutting and polishing plant at Gaborone, in collaboration with Mabrodiam, a diamond cutting company of Antwerp, Belgium. It is an experiment which may pave the way for a regular cutting industry. The Government of Botswana has also entered into a long term agreement with Lazare Kaplan International, the renowned U.S. jewellery incorporation that is a major cutter processor of rough gem diamonds in the USA, for establishing a cutting and polishing factory in Botswana. The Government will have a 15 per cent stake in it and will be represented on the board. The company plans to market its polished production worldwide.