New De Beers–Botswana Deal Will Tout Country’s Diamonds

By Rob Bates | February 05, 2025

Botswana’s new contract with De Beers includes a plan to market the provenance of the country’s diamonds, representatives of both parties said during a Feb. 3 press briefing at the 2025 Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

“The marketing of Botswana diamonds specifically as Botswana diamonds is very important to us,” Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Botswana’s minister of mines and energy, said in a video from Indaba posted on Facebook by The Projects Magazine. “This [agreement] is the first time there will be a particular focus for country marketing for Botswana.”

De Beers CEO Al Cook said at the press event that Botswana will have a greater say in De Beers’ marketing efforts going forward.

“For first time ever, we will have a structure, a marketing committee, that jointly sets out how we market diamonds,” he said.

The new deal will run for a decade, and, in what seems a new development, it allows for a possible five-year extension.

“It took us five years-plus, almost six years, to negotiate this agreement,” Cook said. “From both sides, we wanted the ability to extend it beyond 10 years.”

In response to a question, Cook stressed that the negotiations were over and that the only thing left was for Botswana to issue new mining licenses, which he called “a largely formulaic process.”

“There are no further negotiations required,” he said, “and we’re all looking forward to a good celebration of the work that’s been done.”

Kenewendo said more details will be released when the contract is signed.

She added: “We hope this agreement will bring some level of stability and rebuild confidence in the diamond market.”

Cook later told Bloomberg that demand for diamond jewelry in the U.S. had risen about 8% year-over-year in November and December 2024.

“There are some encouraging signals,” he said.

He noted that De Beers had already made a promised $100 million in cuts from its bottom line. “We needed to make De Beers more efficient,” he said.

None of that seemed to cheer Duncan Wanblad, CEO of Anglo American, De Beers’ parent company, who told Reuters Monday that his company still aimed to spin off or sell De Beers by the end of 2025.

“It’s going to be fully set up as a stand-alone business, to make sure that it’s not going to be impacting as a drag in any way, shape, or form” on Anglo American, he said in the Reuters interview, held at the Indaba conference.

Botswana has offered to boost its current 15% stake in De Beers, according to Wanblad.

“They certainly indicated a desire to increase their stake, and they have also said they would do so on commercial terms,” Wanblad said in the Reuters story.

Top: The Jwaneng mine in Botswana (photo courtesy of De Beers)