A few years ago, the PR managers in the diamond industry were still seriously concerned that blood diamonds from crisis regions had ruined the industry’s reputation, younger people also found the man-made stones attractive, sales were falling, Corona wasn’t making things any better. In the meantime the demand increases but again huge, the British-South African conglomerate De Beers is said to have increased prices by up to ten percent this year. They will probably pick up further soon because Russia, the largest producer of rough diamonds by volume the world, is no longer allowed to export to many markets, the USA put the stones from Siberia on the sanctions list a few days ago.
What’s bad for Putin could be a big opportunity for tiny Botswana in southern Africa, the world’s second largest producer by volume after Russia. As of 2021, the semi-public Debswana mine has already sold $3.5 billion worth of diamonds. In the future it should be even more.
While mineral resources were more of a curse for other resource-rich countries in Africa, the diamonds in Botswana are a blessing for the country thanks to the policy that has been wise for years. Half a century ago it was one of the 25 poorest in the world, now it belongs to the upper middle class. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raw materials such as cobalt for battery construction only benefit a small elite, while oil-rich Nigeria is sinking into corruption.
“We have used everything we got from the diamonds for schools, roads, medicine and human capital development,” Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi said recently. The country is not perfect either, but it has done a lot right. Together with the British-South African giant De Beers, they founded a joint venture that promotes the stones. For years, Botswana has been trying to earn more from stone processing, cutting and polishing, which is often done in India or China. The contract with De Beers is about to expire and is now set to be renegotiated, with a higher quota for local grinders. In addition, Botswana is applying for the permanent secretariat of the Kimberley Processan organization named after the South African mining town, which aims to ensure that no diamonds come from conflict regions onto the market, which is at least doing better than years ago.
Now, however, the industry is faced with the situation that the Russian Alrosa group, one third of which is state-owned, is to invest part of its profits in the construction of submarines for the navy, as Belgian media reports. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has therefore asked the EU to also include Russian diamonds in the EU sanctions list to take what has so far failed due to the strong diamond lobby in Antwerp, the largest trading center in the world.
The stones from Botswana, on the other hand, are considered ethically impeccable and are said to bring wealth to the country for about a quarter of a century. Then the mines are empty and a new idea is needed.