Botswana plans to significantly increase mining exploration as it looks to reduce its heavy dependence on diamonds amid a prolonged global market downturn.
Mines minister Bogolo Joy Kenewendo said the government intends to survey the roughly 70% of the country that remains unexplored, with a renewed focus on critical and high-value minerals.
The Southern African nation, long regarded as one of Africa’s economic success stories, has been hit hard by weak global diamond demand caused by economic uncertainty and the rising popularity of lab-grown stones.
Diamonds typically account for about one-third of Botswana’s national revenue. Debswana Diamond Company, a joint venture between the Botswana government and De Beers that generates around 90% of the country’s diamond sales, has no plans to increase production in the current market environment.
“There is no use in us burning cash and stockpiling (diamonds),” Debswana CEO Andrew Motsomi said.
According to finance ministry data, Botswana had accumulated a stockpile of 12 million carats by the end of December, almost double the government’s allowable inventory level of 6.5 million carats.
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Despite diamonds remaining central to the mining sector, Kenewendo said the government is accelerating efforts to broaden the country’s mineral base. A newly established state-owned exploration company will play a key role in boosting exploration activity beyond diamonds.
“We were doing more exploration looking for diamonds than looking for other high-value minerals. And now we’re going to change that,” Kenewendo told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining conference in Cape Town. “If you’ve only explored 30% of your country, it really just shows our strong focus on diamonds.”
She acknowledged the risks involved in mineral exploration, noting that investor caution has slowed activity. “There’s a little hesitation from investors to go into exploration.
You can lose a lot of money by exploring and not hitting anything,” she said. “We want to ensure that we have the right data, we know what’s where, so that we can also decide if we want to be investors in that space.”
Botswana is currently the world’s largest diamond producer by value and is also emerging as a copper-mining hotspot. Interest in critical minerals used in advanced manufacturing has intensified as the United States and China compete for resources such as copper and cobalt.
Kenewendo said the U.S. has shown interest in partnering with Botswana on exploration and mining projects, although talks are still in the early stages.
“We will see how that goes,” she said. “We’re just engaging in general investments in the mineral space.”
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Image Credit: AFRICA IS HOME
