23 Feb 2025

The slump in diamond sales, the threat of lab-grown diamonds and the general change in the entire ecosystem of diamond mining and trading are compelling reasons for Debswana to re-imagine and re-configure itself in order to secure its future.

During a meeting with the Jwaneng Mine leadership on Saturday, Vice President Mr Ndaba Gaolathe urged the minie’s leadership  to be inventive in devising strategies to secure not only the future of the mine but also that of mining in its entirety in the country.

Mr Gaolathe said market expansion was one area that the mine could look into for sustained existence, observing that with the experience that Debswana had accumulated over the years, its footprint could by now have extended to other parts of the world.

“With the experience you have accumulated over the years, who says Debswana should be confined to Jwaneng, Orapa and Botswana only?” he asked rhetorically.

“You should now be looking at investing in other parts of the world, and this is why you should re-imagine yourselves,” he said, noting among many factors that with the high quality of its human resource and its rich knowledge base Debswana could be operating from anywhere in the world.

The vice president said Botswana looked to bigwigs such as Debswana to lead the way and inspire the change that the country aspired for.

He said with the country picking up pace in terms of harnessing the power of digitilisation, embracing the notion of doing more with less as well as making processes easy and seamless, it was established entities like Debswana who could lead the way as they carried the institutional experience to constantly transform so as to remain relevant in their respective fields.

In terms of procurement, Mr Gaolathe encouraged the Jwaneng mine, which he said carried the largest procurement budget after government to ensure transparency and fairness in its procurement processes.

Encouraging the adoption of all-inclusive procurement processes, he said a tradition where procurement was biased towards established companies and well-known names no longer had a place in society.

Jwaneng mine general manager Mr Goitseone Gadifele said alive to the fact that mining would someday cease because of the depletion of diamonds, the mine was working on strategies to secure the future of Jwaneng town beyond diamond mining.

Mr Gadifele cited the Diamonds to Mutton project as one strategy through which the mine’s impact would be felt beyond diamond mining.

“Through this project, we are preparing for a future where we will be mining mutton in Jwaneng for export to external markets,” he said, explaining that the project would be done in partnership with farmers in the Jwaneng catchment area. Further, he said the mine was working on commercialising its airport and game park to tap into their potential as possible revenue spinners for the town going into the future.

The general manager also paid homage to the flourishing relationship that Jwaneng mine had with the town’s residents and leadership.

Attributing residents’ high expectations in terms of what the mine could do for them to that positive relationship, Mr Gadifele however said the P10 million annual Corporate Social Investment budget put a cap on the extent to which Jwaneng mine could assist communities residing within its zone of influence.

Regarding the decline in diamond sales, he said the recent conclusion of negotiations on the Botswana and De Beers’ new sales agreement inspired hope that diamond sales would soon improve. ENDS