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Botswana, the world’s second-largest producer of natural diamonds, has made an extraordinary discovery that has captivated the global diamond industry. On August 22nd, 2024, the Botswana government announced the unearthing of a massive 2,492-carat diamond, the second-largest diamond ever found in a mine.

The colossal gemstone, which weighs approximately half a kilogram (1.1 pounds), was discovered at the Karowe Mine, operated by the Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp. This remarkable find comes more than a century after the discovery of the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever found, which weighed 3,106 carats and was unearthed in South Africa in 1905.

“It is overwhelming,” said Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was among the first to witness the diamond at a viewing ceremony held in the capital city of Gaborone. “I am lucky to have seen it in my time,” he added, visibly awestruck by the sheer size and significance of the discovery.

The as-yet-unnamed diamond is the second-biggest diamond to be discovered in a mine, surpassing the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the same Karowe Mine in 2019 and weighed 1,758 carats. The Karowe Mine has proven to be a prolific source of large, high-quality diamonds, having produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.

“This is history in the making,” said Naseem Lahri, the Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”

Botswana, a country with a population of just 2.6 million, has emerged as a global powerhouse in the diamond industry, accounting for the discovery of some of the world’s largest and most valuable diamonds in recent years. The country is the second-largest producer of natural diamonds, behind only Russia, and the diamond trade plays a crucial role in its economy, contributing to 30% of its GDP and 80% of its exports.

The discovery of the 2,492-carat diamond is a testament to Botswana’s geological wealth and the country’s commitment to responsible and sustainable diamond mining practices. Lucara Diamond Corp. has been at the forefront of this effort, utilizing advanced X-ray technology to locate and recover large, high-value diamonds like the one found at the Karowe Mine.

While it is still too early to determine the exact value of the diamond, officials have indicated that it could potentially surpass the $63 million record set by a smaller diamond from the same mine in 2016. The decision on how to sell and market this extraordinary gemstone will be a closely watched process, as it has the potential to redefine the global diamond market.

The discovery of the 2,492-carat diamond is not only a significant milestone for Botswana but also a testament to the enduring allure and value of natural diamonds. As the world’s second-largest diamond continues to captivate the global diamond industry, it serves as a reminder of the geological wonders that still lie beneath the earth’s surface, waiting to be discovered.

9News Nigeria

9News Nigeria

A Woman turns her husband into a Snake in other not to go out to meet other women except only her…

According to news

She went to meet a witch doctor to do charms for her to cage her husband inside and the witch doctor gave her a substance that later turned her Husband into a big Snake All efforts to get across to the witch doctor prove futile, no luck…The Husband has remained a Snake.

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Terrified at the thought of being stuck in doors for the next 28 days, in the early hours of Thursday 2 April – a day before Botswana was due to go into lockdown – 23-year-old Kutlwano Selaledi took their own life.

Selaledi, who was a gender non-conformist, meaning they did not regard themselves as either male or female, is said to have overdosed on their depression medication at their home in Palapye.

They were buried this Wednesday in a quiet ceremony at their home village of Gabane.

Described by friends and colleagues as a hero and lover of life, Selaledi, an unemployed law graduate from the University of Botswana, was said to have been battling with depression for some time

It seems their fragile mental state could not handle the thought of four weeks of extreme social distancing and the loneliness this would involve.

According to a source close to the family, Selaledi, nicknamed Bubbly for their friendly nature, was found unconscious by their housemate. They were immediately rushed to hospital but certified dead upon arrival.

“They overdosed on their depression pills. Selaledi had been suffering from depression but did not show any signs of wanting to take their life prior to the incident. They were as bubbly as their name,” insisted an insider.

Giving an insight into the crippling psychological torment raging inside them, on the day they died, at 00:36 in the morning, Selaledi posted on Facebook:

“Much as I try to deny it, suicidal thoughts have been lingering in my head so much lately. I thought going back on my meds would be helpful but even with numbed emotions, I still stay in my head. Trust that the isolation isn’t helping because yes that just means ample time for me to be in my head and it sucks coz my support system isn’t as strong as I’d wish it would be.”

Six hours later, Selaledi’s last message reads simply, “I’m sorry.”

They died soon after.

Tributes have since been pouring in on social media for the popular activist. The Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) organisation, to which Selaledi was closely associated, took to Facebook to offer their own heartfelt condolence.

“Bubbly was an activists, a friend, family, confidante, lover and a hero. We will always and forever remember you and we know that you are in a better place and that all the Earthly burdens have been lifted from your shoulders. You are and always will be a true shining star,” reads part of the message.

Warning that depressed people will be especially vulnerable during lockdown, a close associate of the deceased, who wished not to be named, urged the government to intervene.

“Government should consider looking into depression patients and how they are going to help them. I don’t know how but I foresee a lot of incidents like this.”

Meanwhile, confirming the sad incident, Palapye Station Commander, Beggar Nawa told The Voice, “We received a report of suicide of a 23-year-old. We don’t have any other details on the matter as it is still fresh.”

Efforts to get a comment from the deceased’s family proved futile at the time of going to press. Selaledi’s Aunt shared that she was already at the farm and could not talk.

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9News Nigeria

Botswana has taken a significant step towards establishing its first home-grown commercial bank, a development that will add a new player in an industry that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says is already crowded.

Botswana Building Society (BBS) Managing Director Pius Molefe said on Friday 99.97 percent of its shareholders had approved a resolution to demutualise the 41 year old society, allowing it to convert into a commercial bank.

Demutualisation is the process through which a mutually owned body becomes a limited company.

BBS would apply for a banking licence in December, Molefe said, adding the application would take about six months to be evaluated and BBS hopes to start operating as a commercial bank in the first quarter of 2019.

Botswana has 10 commercial banks, all foreign owned, and the IMF has argued in a country report that there is room for consolidation in the sector.

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9News Nigeria

Investment firm Quantum Global has ranked Botswana the best place to invest in Africa in its latest report.

It said Botswana has done well across the board, including credit rating and how easy it is to do business.

Somalia was ranked the hardest place in Africa to do business:

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Former U.S. President George W. Bush touted his signature aid project for Africa during a visit to Botswana on Tuesday, saying he hoped Washington would recognise its importance in saving lives threatened by AIDS.

Launched in 2003 during the first Bush administration, PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is the world’s largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine and has branched out over the years to include provision of services for cervical cancer, which is linked to HIV infections in women.

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed steep cuts in the budget for diplomacy and foreign aid but his administration has so far said it will “maintain current commitments and all current patient levels on HIV/AIDS treatment” under PEPFAR.

Bush, visiting a clinic with his wife Laura that provides screening and treatment for cervical cancer, said he hoped such commitments would remain.

“I hope our government when they analyse what works around the world will understand that PEPFAR has saved over 11 million lives,” he said.

“And while progress has been made we’ve got to continue to stay in this battle in order to save lives. Every human life matters. And I hope the people of America understand that through their generosity millions now live.”

Bush said cervical cancer was now the leading cause of death among women in Botswana, a sparsely-populated southern African nation where one in five adults is infected with HIV, according to the United Nations.

Bush, a Republican, had historically low popularity ratings – about 33 percent – when he left office.

But the Obama ministration maintained PEPFAR and the programme enjoys bipartisan support – a rarity in Washington’s polarised atmosphere.

Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an initiative of the George W. Bush Institute, works with PEPFAR on programmes to reduce mortality rates among women from cervical and breast cancer in developing countries.

Source – Reuters

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9News Nigeria

GABORONE (Reuters) – Botswana’s Debswana, the world’s biggest diamond producer by sales value, is on track to produce its first diamonds from the expanded Jwaneng mine by next year, a company official said on Tuesday.

Known as Cut 8, the $3 billion expansion project aims to prolong the Jwaneng mine’s life by a further seven years and produce 100 million carats.

“The Jwaneng pit expansion is on track and will start delivering first ore to plant in 2017,” Debswana Corporate Affairs Manager Matshidiso Kamona said.

The project involves the widening of the existing pit as an alternative to going deep underground.

Debswana is aiming to keep production flat at 20 million carats in 2016.

(Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Mark Potter)

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GABORONE (Reuters) – Botswana will not sell back its troubled 600 megawatt power plant to the Chinese company that built it, as had been widely expected, and will instead offload it to a different Beijing-controlled firm, according to government documents seen by Reuters on Friday.

Documents from the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security showed that negotiations with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) will start soon over the proposed sale of the coal-fired station.

The power plant was built by an another Chinese company, China National Electric Equipment Corporation (CNEEC) at a cost of $970 million, but has broken down repeatedly since commissioning in 2012, leading to a reliance on diesel generators and imports from South Africa.

It is not clear if there is any relationship between the company that built the plant, CNEEC and the potential buyers, CMEC. On its website, CMEC says it operates in 150 countries and is a part of the Sinomach group of companies.

(Writing by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by James Macharia)

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9News Nigeria

By Ed Cropley

GABORONE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe should step aside without delay and allow new leadership of a country whose political and economic implosion since 2000 is dragging down the whole of southern Africa, Botswana President Ian Khama said.

Despite his reputation as one of Africa’s most outspoken figures, Khama’s remarks are certain to raise hackles in Harare, where factions of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party are locked in a bitter struggle to succeed the only leader Zimbabwe has known.

Asked by Reuters if Mugabe, who came to power after independence from Britain in 1980, should accept the reality of his advancing years and retire, 63-year-old Khama responded: “Without doubt. He should have done it years ago.”

“They have got plenty of people there who have got good leadership qualities who could take over,” Khama, the UK-born son of Botswana’s first president, Seretse Khama, and his British wife, Ruth, continued.

“It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is in, he’s not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its predicament,” Khama said, in comments that breach an African diplomatic taboo banning criticism of fellow leaders.

Botswana, the world’s largest producer of diamonds, shares 800 km (500 miles) of border with Zimbabwe and has felt the full effects of its neighbour’s economic collapse under the weight of political violence and hyperinflation since 2000.

Although the economy stabilised in 2009 with the scrapping of the worthless Zimbabwe dollar, a slump in commodity prices over the last two years has triggered a cash crunch that has fed through into unprecedented public anger at Mugabe.

No clear potential successor has emerged from the destabilising factional fight to take over after Mugabe.

Khama said the instability was damaging Botswana’s efforts to wean itself off mining – which accounts for 20 percent of GDP and nearly 60 percent of exports – by promoting itself as a regional logistics and services hub.

The unrest was also forcing more and more Zimbabweans to leave the country, he added.

Botswana is home only to an estimated 100,000 Zimbabweans – a fraction of the 3 million believed to be in South Africa – although this is still enough to strain public services in a nation of 2.3 million people.

Botswana’s jails held “significant numbers” of Zimbabweans, Khama said.

“It is a big concern,” the British-trained former general said. “It is a problem for all of us in the region – and it is a burden. There’s no doubt about that.”

RESURRECTION MAN

In the latest controversy over his health, Mugabe left a summit of southern African leaders at the end of August without warning and went to Dubai, fuelling rumours he had been taken gravely ill or may even have died.

Khama did not discuss any specifics of Mugabe’s condition at the meeting but said his counterpart looked tired. “We’re talking about a 92-year-old man and there’s just so much you can do at that age to try and keep up.”

Mugabe frequently refers to himself as “fit as a fiddle” and hints at a desire to stay in power until he is 100. After his Dubai trip, which he attributed to a family matter, Mugabe joked about online reports of his imminent demise.

“Yes, I was dead. It’s true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do. Once I get back to my country I am real,” he told reporters at Harare airport.

Khama reiterated his government’s concerns about the credibility of the elections Mugabe has won in recent years, but said irrespective of the results no leader should cling on to power for that long.

“My opinion has always been that 10 years leading any kind of organisation – not just a country or a government, any organisation – is pretty much the maximum,” he said.

During its 50 years since independence, Botswana has emerged as a politically and economically stable nation that has used its mineral wealth prudently – a rarity on a continent where such treasures have been routinely squandered, stolen or the cause of civil war.

Khama’s second five-year term in office ends in 2018 when he will hand over to vice-president Mokgweetsi Masisi in a carefully scripted political succession that makes instability almost impossible.

After 2018, Khama, a keen nature-lover whose wood-panelled office is adorned with pictures of the African savannah, said he wanted to dedicate his time to tourism and conservation.

Thanks to a focus on safari tourism and a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, Botswana boasts more than 150,000 elephants, a third of Africa’s entire population of the animals.

But Khama said there was no room for complacency in the fight against the illegal ivory trade given the rampant poaching in other countries on the continent.

“One day if their animals become extinct and we still have viable populations, all the guns will be focused on us,” he said.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley; editing by Giles Elgood)

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