Africa-Press – Botswana. The slight improvement in the diamond market augurs well for Botswana diamond industry, Minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo has said.
Speaking during a tour of Jwaneng Mine as part of her familiarisation tour on Thursday, the minister underscored the need to remain optimistic for market recovery despite the structural changes in the last few years.
“We have a lot of hope. Since January, we have seen a slight improvement in the sales, even though we have anticipated a significant improvement in the second half of the year. For example all categories of jewellery sales have gone up since January, particularly in February and March by between 25 and 30 per cent. This shows some growth as compared to the same period last year, even though it is still below how we had anticipated,” she said.
The minister said government was committed to investing in programmes intended to stimulate new sales to ensure that the brilliance of diamonds was revived across the world.
Additionally, she underscored the need for stakeholders to collaborate and develop strategies that would market Botswana’s diamonds and distinguish them from lab-grown diamonds that have weakened the natural diamonds market.
“As the government, we are collaborating with other stakeholders on a marketing strategy and we explain to our markets that our diamonds are not only ethically sourced but they are also responsibly mined. We want to show that we are not only talking about the diamonds that are brilliant but also the brilliance that they bring into the lives of Batswana, and that is a story that connects with the consumers,” she explained.
Furthermore, Ms Kenewendo called on all stakeholders to collaborate efforts to market and sell Botswana diamonds and take advantage of the decline in synthetic diamonds sales across the market.
On other issues, the minister said Debswana operations should come up with contextual beneficiation programmes for the local communities within which they operate.
“The law and the constitution was meant for fair and equitable distribution across Batswana, but what we have seen is a disadvantage to people who are the custodians of the land and we have to change that wherever there is a mine of substantial value,” she noted.
For his part, Debswana Managing Director, Mr Andrew Motsomi said the company had to come up with some interventions and responses to low diamond sales, which included scaling down production, stock piling and closing some of their operations.
He said the low sales did not only affect Debswana operations but by extension, the overall economy of the country.
Mr Motsomi noted that this called for extensive marketing of diamonds to improve sales. Meanwhile, Jwaneng Mine General Manager, Mr Goitseone Gadifele said the underground project, which is envisioned to extend the lifespan of the mine beyond 2050, was progressing well.
He noted that even though underground mining was not a smooth process, they had been progressing well since they started last year.
“Our open pit, which we run through the split shell mining process, will run until 2034 and we are currently mining cut 8 and 9,” he noted.
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