Botswana's economic diversification strategy to reduce dependence on diamond income and diversify the mining sector got a major boost this week with news of the first significant find of iron ore deposits in the Ngamiland.While Botswana has been trying to diversify its economy away from mining, she has also pursued a strategy of diversifying within the mining sector to drive investors towards other minerals such as coal, uranium, copper and silver.
At a Botswana Resource Sector Conference held in Gaborone this week, mineral explorers said they have discovered what they believe to be significant deposits of iron ore in Shakawe, bolstering the economic lustre of the northwest region where another base metal mine, Boseto Copper Mine, was recently opened.Speaking at the conference, an explorer with Tsodilo Resources, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company exploring for iron ore, copper and diamonds in the Ngamiland, said they discovered a belt stretching 35 kilometers in length and five kilometres in width south of Shakawe, whose ore contains as much as 68 percent iron.
