Prime Minister of the mountain kingdom, Samuel Matekane said the two neighbouring states should leverage their diamond resources to build downstream industries capable of generating jobs, skills and export earnings. “Mining has long been a defining sector of our economies, yet its true potential lies not merely in extraction, but in value addition,” he said at last week’s inaugural session of the Botswana-Lesotho Bi-National Commission (BNC) in Gaborone this week, Lesotho Matekane said. His remarks come at a time when governments across Africa are increasingly pushing beneficiation policies in response to decades of exporting raw minerals while higher-value activities such as processing, manufacturing and branding remained concentrated in developed economies.
Botswana is the world's leading producer of diamonds by value and has spent more than a decade pursuing beneficiation through local cutting and polishing, as well as securing the relocation of global diamond sales operations to Gaborone. Lesotho, meanwhile, is heavily reliant on diamond mining for export earnings but has limited downstream processing capacity. Matekane said the two countries could jointly expand diamond cutting, polishing and jewellery manufacturing while sharing expertise in mining governance, sustainability and technology transfer. “By joining hands, we can expand cutting, polishing and jewellery manufacturing, while also sharing expertise in mining governance, sustainability and technology transfer,” he said.
