DTC Botswana Holds Inaugural Board Meeting

The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Botswana held its inaugural board of directors meeting Tuesday and announced the appointments to the board. DTC Botswana is a 50:50 partnership between the government of Botswana and the De Beers Group.

Aside from sorting and valuing all of Debswana’s production, the body will conduct local sales of aggregated mixes and marketing activities to support the establishment of local diamond manufacturing. It is expected that, by the end of the decade, over $550 million of rough diamonds will be sold annually for manufacturing in Botswana.

Nominated by the Government of Botswana to the board are:

• Linah Mohohlo (Governor, Bank of Botswana),
• Dr. Athalia Molokomme (Attorney General, Republic of Botswana),
• Kago Moshashane (Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources and current president of the Kimberley Process)
• Kelapile Ndobano (Deputy Permanent Secretary for Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, and
• Jacob Thamage (Director of Mines, Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources). 

The De Beers nominees are:

• Varda Shine (Managing Director, Diamond Trading Company),
• Sheila Khama (CEO De Beers Botswana),
• Mike Page (Executive Director, Finance, Diamond Trading Company),
• Paul Rowley (Executive Director, Rough Diamond Division, Diamond Trading Company), and
• Ellen Lamparter (Executive Director, Human Resources, Diamond Trading Company).

“The announcement of the DTC Botswana Board of Directors is one of the many milestones in the history of the partnership between the Government of Botswana and De Beers.” commented Dr Tombale. “I am confident that the board will serve the partners well by rising to the challenges ahead and so assist Botswana realise her dreams of becoming a world class centre for the diamond industry.”