Debswana secures board approval for multi-billion diversification drive

With the current squeeze on rough diamonds not abating, Debswana has, since last year, been mulling a diversification drive away from diamonds to reduce dependence on its single commodity being diamonds.

Industry insiders have revealed to BusinessWeek that for many years, there was resistance to talks of Debswana doing any commercial activity away from diamonds, with the current change of mind coming from successive years of declining revenues and rough diamond values in international markets.