Botswana, De Beers extend sales agreement for the third time running

The Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Group have extended their existing agreement for the sale of Debswana’s rough diamond production by 12 months until 30 June 2023.
“Following further positive progress towards a new agreement being made in the first half of 2022, the two parties have agreed to the one-year extension to enable the finalisation of the ongoing discussions”, De Beers said in a press release distributed on Wednesday.
Initially, the ten-year diamond sales agreement was due to expire at the end of 2020, but was extended to the end of 2021, then to the end of 2022 and now for one more year. Last year, De Beers said the second extension would give the company and Gaborone time to complete discussions regarding the contract renewal and noted good progress achieved at that time.
De Beers brought the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) to Botswana under the current deal, which also paved the way for the country to receive 15% of the total Debswana output for sale by the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company.
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi is advocating for higher added value in the country’s diamond industry and pushing for more polished diamonds to be manufactured locally, which may require a larger share of mined rough to be left for domestic processing.