Botswana has reached an eleventh-hour deal with diamond giant De Beers after months of tense negotiations that saw the continent’s top producer threatening to cut ties with the storied company.
The Botswanan government and Anglo-American PLC, the majority owner of De Beers, have reached an “agreement in principle,” the two sides said in a statement issued on late on Friday.
The agreement provides for a new 10-year agreement to sell the rough diamonds produced by Debswana Diamond Co — a joint venture equally owned by the government and De Beers — and a 25-year extension of its mining licenses.
Photo: Reuters
It also gives Botswana an increased 30 percent of diamond production for sale via the state-owned Okavango Diamond Co, progressively increasing to 50 percent in the final year of the contract, De Beers said in a separate statement on Saturday.
No value was given for the agreement. The previous 2011 sale agreement between the southern African country, one of the continent’s richest, and the world’s largest diamond company by value, was extended exceptionally until Friday last week, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under terms negotiated by the two sides in 2011, De Beers received 90 percent of the rough diamonds mined, while Botswana had 10 percent to sell itself.
In 2020, Botswana’s share was hiked to 25 percent. Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi had threatened to cut ties with the company if the latest talks proved unfavorable for his country.
“If we don’t achieve a win-win situation each party will have to pack its bags and go,” he said in February.
The country turned up the heat the following month by announcing it would soon conclude an agreement to take a 24 percent stake in the Belgian diamond manufacturer HB Antwerp.
Last year, De Beers obtained about 70 percent of its rough diamonds from Botswana. Diamond mining accounts for one-third of the landlocked country’s GDP.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
RSS