Botswana Diamonds seeks to acquire exploration assets in Zimbabwe

BOTSWANA Diamonds (BOD), a listed diamond explorer, has revealed plans to penetrate Zimbabwe’s diamond sector on joint venture terms.
The mining house described the country’s diamond sector as having “excellent potential to be a significant diamond producer”.
The mining industry is one of Zimbabwe’s economic mainstays with the sector presently contributing about 70 percent of the country’s foreign currency earnings.
In a trading update, BOD chairman, M John Teeling, said Botswana Diamonds is experienced in diamond mining and exploration.
To that end, it is seeking to acquire exploration assets in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“We are using this experience to acquire exploration assets in areas of good diamond potential, Botswana, South Africa, and possibly, Zimbabwe,” he said.
“While we have pure blue-sky exploration licenses, we tend to focus on areas where diamonds have already been discovered but for a variety of reasons the ground has been or is being let go.
“We continue to liaise with the authorities in Zimbabwe on entering the diamond sector. There are significant geological opportunities in the country. The objective is to find a formula, which suits all parties.”
Mr Teeling said “Zimbabwe has excellent potential” to be a significant diamond producer hence BOD has maintained contacts in the country.
“We had a joint venture with Vast, which ultimately came to nothing. We are now actively involved in discussions on a possible entry. Whether this happens or not will depend on the ground offered and on the joint venture terms,” he added.
In April this year, Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando said diamond production in the country had grown from 1,7 million carats in 2017 to close to four million last year, with this year’s production expected to reach five million carats.
Mr Teeling said exploration companies have no revenues while active explorers spend money. As such, in recent years BOD has been funded by a small group of private investors as little or no funding was available in London or Johannesburg.
In February, during the Bi-National Commission (BNC) session, Zimbabwe and Botswana signed five additional memoranda of understanding (MoU) as the two nations moved a gear up to cement fraternal relations on a wide range of socio-economic issues.
That took to 25 MoUs that the two countries have signed since the first session of the BNC in February 2019, with 18 outstanding out of the 43 that the two nations came up with.