DiamondBuzz
Diamonds mined in Botswana should be polished locally: President Boko
Botswana President Duma Boko has called for a significant policy change in the country’s diamond industry, urging that all diamonds mined in Botswana be cut and polished locally before export. This move is intended to maximize the economic benefits of the nation’s mineral wealth and stimulate job creation.
Policy Shift: President Boko stated that no mineral will leave this country without being processed, emphasizing that diamonds and copper concentrate must undergo local value addition before export.
Current Practice: Currently, most of Botswana’s rough diamonds are sent to India and other manufacturing centers for cutting and polishing. Efforts to establish local factories have faced challenges due to high operational costs.
Government Initiative: The president made these remarks in Setswana at a community meeting in Ramotswa, highlighting the government’s commitment to a robust beneficiation program aimed at transforming the national economy The announcement was reported by The Projects Magazine and shared on its Facebook page, reaching a wide audience.
Polishing all Botswana diamonds locally, as recently urged by Botswana’s president, could have significant implications for India’s diamond polishing industry, though the immediate impact may be limited and gradual. If Botswana mandates that all rough diamonds be cut and polished locally before export, India’s diamond manufacturers would receive less Botswana-origin rough, potentially reducing their raw material supply
Botswana is one of the world’s leading diamond producers. Historically, the country has exported rough diamonds for processing abroad, missing out on added value and employment opportunities at home. The government and De Beers have previously attempted to attract investment in local manufacturing, but progress has been slow.
President Duma Boko’s call for all Botswana diamonds to be cut and polished locally marks a bold step toward economic transformation. If implemented successfully, this policy could reshape the country’s diamond industry and set a precedent for other resource-rich nations.
DiamondBuzz
De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation
Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.
De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.
Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.
Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.
On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.
Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.
De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.
This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.
In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.
Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.
Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”
De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.
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