Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 25 February 2025 the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Group (Anglo American) signed binding agreements in Gaborone formalising the September 2023 Heads of Terms. The package replaces the previous Debswana sales arrangement (which expired 30 June 2023 and had operated under rolling extensions) with a new 10-year sales agreement, optionally extendable by a further 5 years; extends the four Debswana mining licences (Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane, Damtshaa) by 25 years from August 2029 to July 2054; and progressively shifts rough-diamond allocation toward the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC). Under the new sales split, ODC takes 30% of Debswana production with De Beers selling 70% in the first five years (2025-2030), rising to 40%/60% in years 6-10 (2030-2035), and 50%/50% in the optional 5-year extension period — a step-up from the legacy 25%/75% split. De Beers has also committed an upfront BWP 1 billion (~USD 75 million) contribution to a new Diamonds for Development Fund, with further annual contributions tied to Debswana dividends, to support diversification under Botswana's Vision 2036 and National Development Plan. The agreement bundles in-country beneficiation commitments: a new diamond jewellery manufacturing facility in Botswana, a De Beers Institute of Diamonds grading laboratory, and a diamond vocational training institute. The deal was signed by Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Joy Kenewendo and De Beers CEO Al Cook, with President Duma Boko presiding. It is the first Botswana entry in the IPTM register and the cleanest worked example of the negotiated / equity-sharing model of resource nationalism — distinct from the outright export bans pursued by Indonesia, the DRC and Zimbabwe, but driven by the same producing-country imperative to capture rents and margin from a strategic mineral sector.

On 8 October 2024 Botswana's National Assembly assented to the Mines and Minerals (Amendment) Act No. 14 of 2024, the most significant rewrite of the country's mining statute (Cap. 66:01, 1999) in over two decades. The Act commenced on 1 October 2025 via Statutory Instrument 120 of 2025 and introduces five structurally significant provisions: a mandatory 24% citizen/local-investor equity participation in new mining concessions (if the state elects not to take the stake itself), a broadened "controlling interest" definition capturing indirect offshore transactions, enhanced ministerial licence-transfer approval requirements, strengthened environmental rehabilitation obligations, and an in-country beneficiation push. The measure closes the offshore-transaction loophole that previously allowed indirect change-of-control via Mauritius/BVI/Singapore SPVs to bypass ministerial approval, and operationalises Botswana's resource-nationalism turn alongside the companion February 2025 De Beers / Debswana commercial renegotiation.