Botswana has long been one of the world's most diamond dependent economies, but as global
demand for diamonds softens, the country is accelerating efforts to diversify its mining
sector and build a broader minerals base. I spoke with Botswana's Minister of Minerals and
Energy Boholo Kenuendo about the country's pivot towards a more diversified minerals
output. Botswana's mining industry has largely been about the diamonds, and the
focus of our legislation has largely been how do we stimulate beneficiation in the diamond
industry. But in the last year we've worked really hard to refocus into diversification
within mining just outside of diamonds, not to say we're not doing any work in the diamond
space. We continue to champion and to lead in. The diamond space, but having a monolithic
economy isn't always the best, and we are learning it the hard way. And now we are really
stimulating for expansions and increased production in copper. We are facilitating
projects in manganese. We are facilitating the beneficiation of soda ash. We're looking a lot
more into exploration around the Kalahari copper belt, the platinum and chrome belt.
We're really looking at aspects of gold in Botswana and we really think
that we will hit something because as we stand we've only done exploration for 30% of the
country. So in real essence while we're a major mining economy, we are a child when it
comes to general mining and so it's an exciting time to try to draw more investors
into mining and. So quite a big ambition as it sounds like with the sector. Yes. Do you have a
trajectory of when you want it to go from exploration to a bit more discovery and
eventual investment into some of the projects? You know, one of the downfalls of exploration
and leaving it to other people is exploration needs a lot of like patient funding.
It needs people that are willing to go in. And so we've decided as a government that we're
going to start an exploration company and we are going to champion exploration so we can
create a good database for investors so we can leapfrog a lot faster from
exploration processes to productive mining and so we're hoping that several new mines
or starting work in mines will happen between the period between 9 and 2028.
Given some of the data that we're seeing and we're starting to see some of the large mines,
mining companies also come into Botswana, so that is giving us a little bit of hope that
we'll start to see productive mining take off and we're working through any of the
legislatory regulatory issues that have been hindrances to seeing
that productive mining happening in Botswana and we're really Feeling upbeat about the
prospects. What are some of those regulatory hindrances, and I speak specifically about past
agreements that you've maybe had with other mining companies. I wonder if any of your past
experiences are informing what you're looking to do now? Well, I'll come to that, but let me
answer what are some of the hindrances. It's not necessarily hindrances because we have a
good mining jurisdiction. We have a good mining jurisdiction, but we can make things
better, you know, and we are starting to allow small scale mining, not artisanal
mining, small scale mining, so allowing a little less capital intensive mining to come in,
and so that is now in the new. Mines and Minerals Amendment Act and we are
very clear about what the standards are for rehabilitation. There are no questions a little
later of the expectation of the symbiotic relationship between nature and mining, and
we're really clear on that. And we have now introduced carbon credits because that's what
the mines are asking for. They want to prove to their funders, their financiers, their
customers. That they are working in a lot more carbon neutral space and they are working on
that and we are introducing renewable energy and renewable energy certificates so as a mine
you can come and apply to us for an energy project to generate your own electricity and
we believe that this is helpful because as we currently sit, we have an energy deficit. We
are accelerating projects. Major projects as quickly as we can, but you know major projects
take time. So if mining companies can be in a position to generate for themselves, then we
will work very hard and urgently to facilitate such. And then how are your past
experiences then informing we think that the Detswana model, our tripleP model with TB
is a test case that we should try to spread across. Other mineral sectors and so we're
interested as we go into exploration we're looking for partners to create a tripleP model.
We're going into new minerals. We will be looking for investable minerals,
investable projects, not just in mining but also in the downstream because we have a really
solid test case of how a private and government partnership can yield more value for
the country.