'Govt to work with serious miners', Gabaake

The figures speak for themselves: firstly, Botswana is estimated to have no less than 300 billion tonnes of coal, which represents more than a third of the world's total coal resources. Secondly, all indications are that the golden "33 million carats per annum" era of diamond mining is in its twilight. Thirdly, domestic power demand is rising by approximately 10 percent annually and requires large investment in generation.

Coal has emerged as the elixir for a range of threats facing the Botswana economy that represents the elusive "win-win" for the government and the private sector. The government expects to leverage on its decades of interfacing with De Beers and the expertise thus acquired to negotiate lucrative deals for Batswana.