De Beers moves diamond sorting from London

27 May, 2008 in Botswana, Business, Mining

source: Telegraph (UK)
By Philip Aldrick
Last Updated: 1:33am BST 27/05/2008

London is to lose an association with diamonds that stretches back 80 years as De Beers moves its central sorting operations to Botswana.

A diamantaire examining a large rough diamond using a loupe
Diamond cuts: 50 UK jobs will go as the central sorting operations move to Gaborone, Botswana

Since the 1930s, every De Beers diamond has come through London for “aggregation” – the process of pooling rough stones and ensuring a standardisation of quality kitemarks. The operation is being moved to Botswana’s capital, Gaborone.

At least 50 jobs from the 500 in the London HQ of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), De Beers’ sorting and valuation arm, will be lost. Though London will remain De Beers’ principal location for client sales, much of DTC’s sorting and valuing is expected to follow the aggregation business to Gaborone.

De Beers first unveiled plans to [continue reading]

Debswana Board changes

27 May, 2008 in Botswana, Business, Mining

source: Sunday Standard
by Gowenius Toka
25.05.2008 10:36:46 A

Following change of faces in Government, which resulted in a dramatic shake up of the Public Service and the redeployment of officers in the civil service, it also became necessary to adjust Government representations on the Debswana Board partly because of the importance of keeping to the obligations of the agreement between the Botswana Government and De Beers.

There was also the need to realign the system in view of the void brought about by the creation of new positions and departments in Government, such as the Diamond Hub, Transport Hub and others, which the new regime found expedient in enhancing effective government.

Information passed to The Sunday Standard reveals that the Permanent Secretary to the President, Eric Molale, has been appointed as the new Board Chairman for Debswana. He takes over from Dr Akolang Tombale who has been reassigned to the Diamond Hub. A profile on Molale’s background, submitted by Debswana, shows that Molale commands extensive experience pooled from a range of past and present public service appointments over [continue reading]

Young Indian Billionaire Courts Botswana

27 May, 2008 in Botswana, Business

source: Mmegi
By Wanetsha Mosinyi
Staff Writer

India’s youngest self-made billionaire, Jignesh Shah, was in Botswana last week on a fact finding mission to “revolutionalise the way Africa trades commodities” through his company, MCX Africa.

Shah and his team were in the country to launch a licence for MCX Africa to be domiciled here under the Botswana International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

MCX stands for Multi Commodity Exchange and forms part of a conglomerate of companies that Shah founded.

The company plans to operate a Pan African commodity and derivatives exchange from Botswana to reach into all of Africa’s 53 countries.

Shah is the founder, Chairman and Group CEO of the Financial Technologies (FT) group, a US dollar 3.2 billion conglomerate leading in creating and operating techno-centric financial exchanges for [continue reading]

Now a click of the computer could take you back to the past

27 May, 2008 in Botswana, Education

source: Sunday Standard
by Gowenius Toka
24.05.2008 11:49:20 A

In a few months, if you click your computer keyboard and log onto the internet, the information superhighway could take you to Botswana’s historical sites where you may find yourself face to face with historical figures like the famous three chiefs: Kgama, Sebele and Bathoen.

Members of the public will in the near future be able to access Botswana’s archived historical and cultural material at the Department of National Archives and Record Services simply by clicking at their computer keyboards and logging on to the internet.

Plans to launch an inventory or user guide on the archived material at the Department of National Archives and Record Services, and make it accessible to the general public through the internet, are at an advanced stage, thanks to a University of Botswana-funded research project.

Presently, for a person to get information on any subject at the BNARS, they have to be directed by [continue reading]

CIC Energy warns of further delays to Botswana power project

27 May, 2008 in Botswana, Business, Mining

source: Mining Weekly
By: Liezel Hill
Published on 26th May 2008
Updated 6 hours ago

New negotiations with electricity offtakers for Toronto- and Botswana-listed CIC Energy’s Mmamabula project, in Botswana, may affect the project’s schedule, the company reported.

The firm said that, in order to conclude an engineering, procurement and construction contract, it would have to agree to terms that may become a problem when seeking finance for the project, and so it had approached the offtakers, South Africa’s power-strapped utility Eskom and the Botswana Power Corporation, to cover additional risk.

“Challenging” conditions in the global engineering, procurement and construction market meant that the project costs were likely to rise, CIC cautioned.

The company could not be specific owing to confidentiality agreements, but “the general nature of the issue is that the contract terms and conditions that are being proposed by the short-listed EPC contractors for the Mmamabula energy project, including allocation of various risks related to [continue reading]

26 Fighter Pilots Graduate

27 May, 2008 in Botswana

source: Mmegi
By Tumelo Setshogo
Correspondent

THEBEPHATSHWA: Twenty-six members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) on Friday graduated from the Flying Training School (FTS where they were trained to fly the PC 7 aircraft.

The 26 graduates, four of them from the South African Defence Force (SADF), undertook a basic flying course (BFC) which started on November 5, 2006 and ended on May 16.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Dikeledi of the Air Arm Unit, the course had both theoretical and practical parts. He said the fighter pilots had acquired the knowledge and skills, and met the highest military standards set by air forces throughout the world. “But this does not mean they will all end up as fighter pilots as some will join other streams in the transport and helicopter stream,” he noted.

Officiating at the same ceremony, Justice, Defence and Security minister Ramadeluka Seretse said the [continue reading]