The Jwaneng Diamond Mine Image credit: De Beers Group
(thevoicebw.com) - In response to the impact of Covid-19, De Beers has drastically reduced its production guidance for the year. Initially, De Beers had set a target of mining between 32-34 million carats for 2020. The figure has since been scaled down to between 25-27 million carats due to the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, which has led to a temporary shut down of virtually all industries. Meanwhile, the latest developments regarding the diamond industry are expected to hit government coffers hard. For decades, Diamonds have been Botswana’s biggest revenue earner, accounting for a large portion of the country’s exports in terms of value. With no diamonds currently being sold due to the pandemic, Botswana stands to lose a massive amount of money. When addressing the media recently, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr. Thapelo Matsheka predicted the country could lose well over P16 billion in revenue from diamonds.
