"Botswana\u2019s Leader Says Diamond Deal Reached With De Beers"

" Botswana\u2019s Leader Says Diamond Deal Reached With De Beers \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n\r\nBotswana\u2019s president Duma Boko, who swept to power in October elections, said his government has reached a diamond extraction and sales agreement with De Beers that will bring certainty to the gem-dependent economy.\r\n Terms were finalized by midnight on Jan. 24 and will be announced soon, Boko said in an interview on Tuesday. The southern African nation is the world\u2019s biggest producer of rough diamonds by value and the industry generates the bulk of its income. Most of Botswana\u2019s gems are mined by Debswana, a venture between Anglo American Plc\u2019s De Beers unit and the government. \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n\r\n\u201cThe issue with De Beers has been settled,\u201d Boko said in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he is attending an energy conference. He indicated last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that an agreement was imminent, and said he had followed through on his commitment to conclude it.\r\n\r\nDuring his election campaign, Boko was critical of his predecessor Mokgweetsi Masisi\u2019s handling of talks with De Beers to renew the more than half century alliance between Botswana and the world\u2019s largest diamond firm. Masisi had caused De Beers to consider walking away from the deal, Boko said, and he sought to reopen talks.\r\n\r\nBoko\u2019s Umbrella for Democratic Change coalition unseated Masisi\u2019s Botswana Democratic Party, which had led the country since independence from the UK in 1966.\r\n\r\nThe new agreement had not resulted in \u201cany major changes, just a little tweaking of things here and there,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nUnder the provisional terms of a 10-year accord announced by Botswana\u2019s previous administration in July, the state-owned diamond trader was to get 30% of Debswana\u2019s output, while the government would secure 10 billion pula ($720 million) in development funding.\r\n\r\nDe Beers didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.\r\n\r\nAn arid, underdeveloped nation at independence, Botswana has leveraged the discovery of diamonds in 1967 to build itself into the richest country per capita on Africa\u2019s mainland, according to the World Bank.\r\n Lab threat \r\nStill, a prolonged slump in the global diamond market and a challenge from lab-grown gems has hurt its economy. Boko said the agreement will restore certainty and economic growth will follow.\r\n\r\nThe country will focus on promoting its gems as natural and charging a premium for their provenance, marking them to show they have been mined in the country and their sale promotes development, he said. Diamond revenues in some other parts of Africa have been used to finance conflict.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe appreciate the threat posed by lab-grown diamonds. I don\u2019t want to give them the privilege of calling them diamonds. Diamonds are natural,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will then market our diamonds in terms of their provenance and of the story behind the diamond.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n "

"Botswana\u2019s Leader Says Diamond Deal Reached With De Beers"

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