DTC Botswana
A cut above the rest In 2011 De Beers and the Botswana government signed a ten-year agreement to move the London DTC to Botswana. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Debbie Clark Botswana has experienced a serious resurgence of mining activity, with more discoveries seemingly every month. Speaking with me in 2012, Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines, said the minerals sector of the country was flourishing and that "exploration for a wide variety of minerals is active and several new minerals projects were launched during last year." Botswana, he said, is a country "getting back to its feet" following the disastrous effects of the 2008 global economic meltdown. "The downturn in the global economy commencing 2008 has had serious repercussions on the mining sector in Botswana," Siwawa explained. "The industry went into a lull with some companies closing down whilst others retrenched staff all in an effort to reduce costs and weather the storm. I think since 2010 however the economic landscape has been changing, picking up, to the extent that in July 2011 we had the highest world record sales of diamonds from Botswana. That has tailed off slightly in terms of production and we are not yet back to the pre-2008 crisis levels but we are certainly producing diamonds and the economy is picking up." Diamonds are of course a girl's best friend; they're Botswana's too. And in August last year, De Beers began rough stone sorting in the country, a first step in its transfer from London to Gaborone. Rough…
DTC Botswana
A cut above the rest In 2011 De Beers and the Botswana government signed a ten-year agreement to move the London DTC to Botswana. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Debbie Clark Botswana has experienced a serious resurgence of mining activity, with more discoveries seemingly every month. Speaking with me in 2012, Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines, said the minerals sector of the country was flourishing and that "exploration for a wide variety of minerals is active and several new minerals projects were launched during last year." Botswana, he said, is a country "getting back to its feet" following the disastrous effects of the 2008 global economic meltdown. "The downturn in the global economy commencing 2008 has had serious repercussions on the mining sector in Botswana," Siwawa explained. "The industry went into a lull with some companies closing down whilst others retrenched staff all in an effort to reduce costs and weather the storm. I think since 2010 however the economic landscape has been changing, picking up, to the extent that in July 2011 we had the highest world record sales of diamonds from Botswana. That has tailed off slightly in terms of production and we are not yet back to the pre-2008 crisis levels but we are certainly producing diamonds and the economy is picking up." Diamonds are of course a girl's best friend; they're Botswana's too. And in August last year, De Beers began rough stone sorting in the country, a first step in its transfer from London to Gaborone. Rough…
