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Botswana signs new diamond sales deal with De Beers

Published

10 months ago

July 1, 2023

Southern African country, Botswana has announced a new diamond sales deal with the mining company, De Beers after months of prolonged negotiation.

The country’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi warned in February that his country could sever ties with De Beers if talks to renegotiate a sales agreement proved unfavourable for his country.

The president seemed to have had his wish as the new deal which was concluded on Friday gives Botswana a bigger share of rough stones from their joint venture. The new agreement includes 25-year mining licences to Debswana, an Anglo-American unit of De Beers as well as a 10-year sales agreement for Debswana rough diamond production through 2033.

Botswana’s government sells 75% of its output to De Beers, with the remaining 25% going to the state-owned Okavango Diamond Co.

Botswana is the largest producer of rough diamonds in Africa. It received 10% of the production, while the mining De Beers received 90% at the beginning of the partnership, and increased to 25% in 2020.

Mining is one of the best and most lucrative industries in the world, particularly for diamonds, of which Botswana is the world’s top producer in terms of value.

Related Topics:Botswana Diamond Featured

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ExxonMobil ‘optimistic’ over Mozambique LNG project

Published

24 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to a company spokesman on Thursday, ExxonMobil is “optimistic and pushing forward” with its postponed Rovuma liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique and anticipates a final investment decision before the end of next year.

In offshore Area 4 in northern Mozambique, ExxonMobil and its partner Enivare are developing the Rovuma LNG project. Exxon is in charge of building and running the onshore liquefaction and associated facilities, while Eni is focused on the Coral floating LNG and upstream activities.

ExxonMobil was also impacted by the development of shared and common facilities, such as an LNG jetty and offloading facility when TotalEnergies declared force majeure in 2021 in response to an offensive by militants linked to the Islamic State that threatened its Area 1 Mozambique LNG project.

“We recognise there are challenges and there are. We recognise that those challenges can be overcome if we work together,” Arne Gibbs, general manager at ExxonMobil Mozambique, told an energy conference in Maputo.

“My message is quite simple … We are optimistic, we are pushing forward,” he said of a project expected to enter a front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase in a few months.
Originally planned for 15 million metric tons per year (mtpa), the project has been changed to a modern, electric, modular facility capable of producing 18 mtpa of LNG, which is more flexible and emits fewer harmful pollutants, according to Gibbs.

“It was important to change our design to a project that is ready-made, that is fit for purpose for the current business environment, including the attention to CO2 emissions and GHG (greenhouse gases),” he added.

Credit Agricole declared in March that it would not lend money to two significant LNG projects, including Rovuma, on the grounds that it had made a pledge to abstain from further fossil fuel ventures.

According to Gibbs, the business acknowledged that the intervention of a regional military force and Rwanda’s military assistance to Mozambique had resulted in a notable improvement in the security environment.

In February, Exxon announced that it was keeping an eye on security developments in the province of Cabo Delgado, where terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State have been launching new attacks this year.

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Nigeria’s Insurance Corporation raises maximum deposit coverage from N500k to N5m

Published

1 day ago

May 3, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The maximum deposit insurance coverage levels for Deposit Money Banks has been raised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) on Thursday from N500,000 to N5 million.

At a news conference in Abuja, NDIC Managing Director Bello Hassan declared this effective immediately. He said, “For Deposit Money Banks, the increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N5,000,000, would provide full coverage of 98.98% of the total depositors compared with the current cover of 89.20%. Regarding the value of deposits covered, the revised coverage would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 25.37% compared with the current cover of 6.31% of the total value of deposits.

“The increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N200,000 to N2,000,000 would provide full coverage of 99.27% of the total depositors compared with the current level of 98.76% and would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 34.43% compared with 14.38% of the total value of deposit, currently covered.

“The increase of the maximum deposit insurance coverage from N500,000 to N2,000,000 would provide full coverage of 99.34% of the total depositors compared with the current 97.98% and would increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance to 21.04% compared with 10.77% of the total value of the deposit, currently covered.”

Additionally, Hassan said that increasing the maximum deposit insurance coverage for primary mortgage banks from N500,000 to N2,000,000 would cover all depositors, or 99.99% of them, and increase the value of deposits covered by deposit insurance from the current 40.60% cover to 43.10% of the total deposit value.

Additionally, the Corporation increased the maximum pass-through deposit insurance coverage for each Mobile Money Operator subscriber from N500,000 to N5,000,000.