{"id":85881,"date":"2023-07-11T09:21:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T09:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/?p=85881"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:42:00","slug":"botswana-de-beers-diamond-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2023\/07\/11\/botswana-de-beers-diamond-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana to sell more of its own diamonds under new deal with De Beers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Under a new agreement, Botswana will get 30% of diamond output to sell through its state-owned Okavango Diamond company, up from 25%. After 10 years, De Beers will be handing over half of what is mined to Botswana<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Diamond mining contributes a third of Botswana&#8217;s gross domestic product<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Global diamond production is down by 26% since 2004, with lab-grown stones claiming much of the shine<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Botswana has reached a new agreement with mining conglomerate De Beers which gives the government a larger portion of the diamonds mined in the country to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the new agreement, the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (OKD) will get 30% of the diamonds mined by Debswana, up from 25%. This portion will rise to 40% after 5 years and then to half in 10 years&#8217; time, when the contract ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The partnership between Botswana and the world\u2019s largest diamond company by value dates back 54 years. Debswana, a joint venture between the Botswana government and De Beers, operates four diamond mines in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Botswana government plans to focus more on the cutting, polishing and jewellery-making sides of the industry. Diamond mining contributes a third of Botswana\u2019s gross domestic product, which has helped it become Africa\u2019s sixth richest nation per capita. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/Diamonds-1-1-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85882\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Half of the world\u2019s diamonds were mined in Africa in 2022<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Botswana is the second-biggest diamond producer. The Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa are also in the top five<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Russia produces the most diamonds by volume but the value of Botswana\u2019s diamond output is higher. In 2022 it was worth $4.7-billion; Russia\u2019s was $3.5-billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Losing its sparkle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Production in Botswana, like in South Africa and Australia, has not recovered since the steep drop-off during 2008&#8217;s global recession. Australia produced no diamonds in 2021 or 2022, according to Kimberly Process statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Globally, diamond production has decreased by 26% since 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Synthetic diamonds have been gaining popularity in many countries, says Edahn Golan, a diamond industry analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason is price. &#8216;The average retail price of a one-carat lab-grown is 76% lower than a natural diamond. That makes for a very appealing option. Especially if you don&#8217;t tell your friends that your diamond is not natural.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notebook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/kimberleyprocessstatistics.org\/public_statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kimberley Process Rough Diamond Statistics<\/a> website collects data on rough diamonds<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debeersgroup.com\/media\/company-news\/2023\/pr-07-01-23#:~:text=and%20mining%20licences-,The%20Government%20of%20the%20Republic%20of%20Botswana%20and%20De%20Beers,mining%20licences%20through%20to%202054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">media release<\/a> about the De Beers-Botswana deal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Half of the world&#8217;s diamonds come from Africa, but Botswana, the continent&#8217;s top producer, didn&#8217;t own much of what it mined, until now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,446,1387],"tags":[319,320,321,322,193,323,324,325,326,327,328,329,330,331,332,333,334,40],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-85881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-news","category-the-outlier","tag-anglo-american","tag-australia","tag-botswana","tag-de-beers","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-diamond-mining","tag-drc","tag-eedahn-golan","tag-industry","tag-jewellery","tag-lab-grown","tag-lab-grown-diamonds","tag-mining","tag-okavango-diamond-company","tag-production","tag-recession","tag-russia","tag-south-africa"],"acf":{"big_number":null,"big_number_caption":null,"big_number_link":null,"big_number_background":null,"big_number_text_colour":null,"big_number_icon":null,"big_number_wide":null,"featured_chart":null,"flourish_chart_id":null,"flourish_sub_title":null,"flourish_chart_width":null,"is_newsletter_post":null,"post_style":null,"show_on_front":null,"link_through":null,"chart_url":null,"background_colour":null,"text_colour":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86547,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85881\/revisions\/86547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85881"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=85881"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=85881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}