The exploration centred around the Mopipi project, about 450 km north of Gaborone which lay adjacent to De Beers' Orapa and Letlhakane diamond mines.
"Under the terms of the joint venture agreement, De Beers will be responsible for financing and carrying out all exploration and evaluation work"
De Beers is to shortly commence an intensive exploration and evaluation programme.
Aljazeera
� Thousands of Gana and Gwi �Bushmen�, and Bakgalagadi, have been forcibly
evicted from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
(CKGR) in Botswana. This is a gross violation of their human rights and is
against international law. Unless they get their lands back, these Bushman tribes
are unlikely to survive as peoples.
� The government wrongly claims that these relocations are voluntary and gives
several quite different reasons for them: these can be shown to be false
� Diamonds have been found at a Bushman community called Gope
(pronounced hop-ey), where test drilling has taken place and a rig and basic
installation have been mounted. Diamonds have been found in test drilling near
other Bushman communities. There is, however, no mining at present[Feb.23.04] in the
CKGR.
� The number of diamond exploration licences given out by the government in
the CKGR has increased dramatically since the Bushmen were evicted.
De Beers and Debswana
� Diamond mining in Botswana is controlled by a company called Debswana
(ie. De Beers Botswana), which is owned on a 50/50 basis by the government
and by De Beers.
� Many of the directors of Debswana are senior political figures in Botswana.
For instance, the deputy chairman of Debswana, Dr. A.R. Tombale, is the
permanent secretary in the Botswana Ministry of Minerals, Energy & Water.
Another director, M.L. Selepeng, is permanent secretary to the president of
Botswana. Another director, TC Moremi, is permanent secretary at the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry.
Headed by Professor Chen Qianwang, a team of scientists at China�s University of Science and Technology came up with a new method of creating synthetic diamonds, a method that could pave the way for future production of cheap gem quality diamonds.
