Debswana Diamond Company Limited, or simply Debswana, is a

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

company located in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, and is the world's leading producer of

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s by value. Debswana operates four diamond mines in the eastern and central parts of Botswana, as well as a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mine. Debswana is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between the government of Botswana and the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n diamond company De Beers; each party owns 50 percent of the company.

Mines

The mines Debswana owns and operates are: * Orapa diamond mine, opened in 1971 * Letlhakane diamond mine, opened in 1975 * Jwaneng diamond mine, opened in 1982 * Damtshaa diamond mine, opened in 2003

History

Debswana was formed as the De Beers Botswana Mining Company on 23 June 1968, after De Beers

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

s identified diamond-bearing deposits at Orapa in the 1960s. Over the next five years, the government of Botswana increased its ownership stake from an original 15 percent to 50 percent. On March 25, 1992, the name of the company was changed to Debswana Diamond Company (Proprietary) Limited. The company’s primary objective is diamond mining and associated processes. Debswana operates the Orapa, Letlhakane, Jwaneng and Damtshaa Mines. The four mines have contributed significantly to Botswana’s socio-economic growth through diamond revenue, transforming the country from an agriculturally based economy in the 1960s to a country that has consistently displayed one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. Debswana unearthed a 1,098 carat diamond in Botswana in June 2021. It is believed to be the third largest gem-quality stone ever to be mined. Under the terms of a 2025 signed agreement, Botswana will see its share of diamonds from Debswana grow from 25% to 50%.

Production

Debswana controls all diamond mining in Botswana; there are no private diamond mining operations in the country. Combined production of the company's four mines totalled 30 million carats , nearly a quarter of the world's annual production of around 130 million carats . The high value per weight of diamonds mined by Debswana has made the company the leading producer of diamonds by value in the world. Debswana is also the second largest producer by volume.

Income and profits

Economic impact

Diamond mining activities have fueled much of the growth in Botswana's economy, allowing it to grow from one of the poorest countries in the world when it became independent in 1966 to a "middle income" nation, with $9,200

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

in 2004. The country has an agenda of becoming a "high-income" country by 2036. Largely because of this, Botswana is considered by two major investment services to be the safest

credit risk Credit risk is the chance that a borrower does not repay a loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Diamonds account for approximately one third of the nation's GDP and over 80 percent of earnings from

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

s, as of 2019. Debswana is the largest non-government employer in the country, employing approximately 6,400 people, of whom over 93 percent are Batswana.

Criticism

Human rights

Debswana has been criticised by the international indigenous rights organisation,

Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the collective rights of Indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal people ...

, for not respecting the human rights of the

Bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the Indigenous peoples of Africa, oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged fro ...

living in Botswana. Since the mid-eighties, Survival International has published reports that the Botswana government has conducted a campaign of harassment to drive them out and give way to mining exploration. Louis Nchindo, former managing director of Debswana, said: "The Government was justified in removing the Basarwa from the Reserve… It is sensible of Government to take such action. Otherwise who would always want to remain in the Dark Ages while others move forward?" According to Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, the Bushmen are not backward or primitive, and their human and cultural rights must be respected. The Botswana government has consistently refuted Survival's claims as exaggerated. There is still no evidence of Debswana mining in the

Central Kalahari Game Reserve Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive list of national parks of Botswana, national park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of (larger than the Netherlands, and almost 10% of Botswana's total land are ...

as the company operates mines elsewhere, at Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa.

References

External links

Official website

The De Beers Group of Companies

Debswana profile on the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
*https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/anrc/DEBSWANA_ENG__HR_PAGES.pdf *https://www.angloamerican.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/PLC/media/presentations/2016pres/debswana-nov-2016.pdf *http://data.unaids.org/publications/irc-pub02/jc769-debswana_en.pdf {{Anglo American plc Companies of Botswana Diamond mining companies Coal companies of Botswana Non-renewable resource companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Botswana Gaborone Botswana companies