{"id":15825,"date":"2022-11-01T10:59:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T10:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report"},"modified":"2022-11-01T12:37:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T12:37:23","slug":"botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","title":{"rendered":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Standard that said the country was \u201cditching De Beers\u201d and planned to sell all its larger diamonds to rival miner Lucara.<\/b><\/p>\n

The report was \u201cludicrous\u201d and \u201cfalse,\u201d Masisi said, speaking at the Natural Diamond Summit in Gaborone, Botswana, according to Indian publication Diamond World.<\/p>\n

Masisi also wrote on Facebook that Botswana was \u201ccommitted\u201d to investment in Debswana, the country\u2019s 50-50 partnership with De Beers.<\/p>\n

The report, which is not currently online and cited unnamed sources, said that Botswana\u2019s government is \u201cexpected\u201d to sell all its \u201cspecial\u201d rough (over 10.8 carats) through the state-owned Okavango Diamond Co. to a combination of Lucara Diamond and HB Antwerp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lucara\/HB Antwerp proposition is hard act to follow for De Beers,\u201d wrote the newspaper. \u201cIt promises a more than 45% increase in Botswana\u2019s diamond revenue, thousands of jobs for Botswana, and a huge boost to the country\u2019s GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither HB, Lucara, nor the Botswanan government returned requests for comment before publication, while De Beers referred JCK to the Diamond World article.<\/p>\n

De Beers and Botswana forged a 10-year agreement in 2011. That was recently extended to 2023.<\/p>\n

In July, Masisi said that Botswana is working on the fine points of its deal with De Beers and is \u201cconfident\u201d that a new deal will be arranged, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Lucara operates the Karowe mine in Botswana. In 2020, it signed a deal with HB Antwerp that called for Lucara to sell all its \u201cspecial\u201d rough (over 10.8 carats) diamonds to HB, which said the diamond\u2019s eventual value would be determined by its polished outcome. Its structure called for Lucara to essentially extend credit to HB, something that is not commonly done in the diamond mining world.<\/p>\n

Debswana operates four diamond mines in Botswana. Originally formed in 1969, it is considered the world\u2019s leading diamond producer by value.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Standard that said the country was \u201cditching De Beers\u201d and planned to sell all its larger diamonds to rival miner Lucara. The report was \u201cludicrous\u201d and \u201cfalse,\u201d Masisi said, speaking at the Natural Diamond Summit in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-15825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nBotswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\"},\"wordCount\":338,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\",\"name\":\"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report - Botswana\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":576,\"caption\":\"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\",\"name\":\"Botswana\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report - Botswana","description":"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report","og_description":"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","og_site_name":"Botswana","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report","datePublished":"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report"},"wordCount":338,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Botswana","Botswana"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report","name":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report - Botswana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-01T10:59:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-01T12:37:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Botswana\u2019s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (pictured) is said to have rebutted a report in Botswanan newspaper Sunday Sta ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_26.jpg","width":1024,"height":576,"caption":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botswana-president-rebuts-ditching-de-beers-report#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Botswana President Rebuts \u201cDitching De Beers\u201d Report"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/","name":"Botswana","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}