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2 African Countries Aim to Take Stake in De Beers
Botswana’s president said his country wants a controlling share, while Angola envisions multiple countries holding minority stakes.
The entrance to the Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana, which is operated by De Beers Group and the government of Botswana and is considered to be world’s richest diamond mine. This week, leaders from both Botswana and Angola spoke out about taking a stake in De Beers.
New York—Leaders from the governments of Botswana and Angola, two top diamond-producing countries, are expressing their interest in the future of De Beers Group as Anglo American looks to offload its majority stake in the company.
Angola’s proposal, communicated via a press release shared Wednesday, is for De Beers to remain a private company in which African countries have a stake.
Earlier this month, the country’s state-run diamond company, Endiama E.P., submitted a “fully financed” offer to acquire a minority stake in De Beers, and invites Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa to join it.
The release did not provide any specifics on who was involved in financing the offer, and Peter Meeus, an adviser and consultant to the Angolan government, said the government cannot comment on who is behind the financing of the bid.
“Angola believes De Beers’ future depends on remaining a private-sector-led, global company,” Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas Diamantino Pedro Azevedo said in the release.
“Our bid is designed to foster a partnership in which Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola all participate meaningfully—ensuring that no single party dominates and that the company can grow as a truly international commercial entity.”
According to Kimberley Process statistics for 2024, Angola was the world’s third-largest producer of rough diamonds by volume last year (14 million carats), topped only by Russia and Botswana, and the second-largest producer in terms of value ($1.41 billion), behind only Russia.
In the release issued Wednesday, Angola noted it is the only country that has brought a new “world-class” diamond mine online in the past 15 years.
The Luele mine, located in northeastern Angola, opened in November 2023, and has an estimated production capacity of about 4 million carats a year.
In addition, last month, De Beers and Endiama announced the discovery of a new field of kimberlite, the host rock for diamonds, in Angola.
De Beers said at the time that it was the first new kimberlite field it had found in more than three decades, and the company’s CEO Al Cook called Angola “one of the best places on the planet to look for diamonds.”
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Angola’s proposal, communicated via a press release shared Wednesday, is for De Beers to remain a private company in which African countries have a stake.
Earlier this month, the country’s state-run diamond company, Endiama E.P., submitted a “fully financed” offer to acquire a minority stake in De Beers, and invites Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa to join it.
The release did not provide any specifics on who was involved in financing the offer, and Peter Meeus, an adviser and consultant to the Angolan government, said the government cannot comment on who is behind the financing of the bid.
“Angola believes De Beers’ future depends on remaining a private-sector-led, global company,” Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas Diamantino Pedro Azevedo said in the release.
“Our bid is designed to foster a partnership in which Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola all participate meaningfully—ensuring that no single party dominates and that the company can grow as a truly international commercial entity.”
According to Kimberley Process statistics for 2024, Angola was the world’s third-largest producer of rough diamonds by volume last year (14 million carats), topped only by Russia and Botswana, and the second-largest producer in terms of value ($1.41 billion), behind only Russia.
In the release issued Wednesday, Angola noted it is the only country that has brought a new “world-class” diamond mine online in the past 15 years.
The Luele mine, located in northeastern Angola, opened in November 2023, and has an estimated production capacity of about 4 million carats a year.
In addition, last month, De Beers and Endiama announced the discovery of a new field of kimberlite, the host rock for diamonds, in Angola.
De Beers said at the time that it was the first new kimberlite field it had found in more than three decades, and the company’s CEO Al Cook called Angola “one of the best places on the planet to look for diamonds.”
Angola’s announcement came one day after Botswana’s President, Duma Boko, said during an appearance on Bloomberg TV that his country wants to take a controlling stake in De Beers.
Botswana currently owns 15 percent of the diamond mining and marketing company and is looking to take “effective control” of the diamond industry by upping its stake to more than 50 percent.
“We’ve communicated our firm intention to increase our stake in De Beers to a controlling stake; that is, upwards of 50 percent,” Boko said during an interview in New York.
He said the country has lined up a number of “potential collaborators,” naming specifically the Oman Sovereign Wealth Fund, and that the deal must close by the end of October, a timeline diamond industry analyst Paul Zimnisky described as “aggressive” given the complexity of the situation.
“Given the importance of this deal, I think it would be better if the interested parties formally and privately submit bids and then ultimately let Anglo American, the selling entity of De Beers, make a decision and then publicly announce the result,” he said via email.
“Given the amount of people who will be impacted by this deal, probably millions of people if we include all of the stakeholders of the larger diamond industry, the situation is very sensitive.”
Zimnisky added that private investors could be “turned off” if one of the governments involved is perceived to be too aggressive.
“At the end of the day, the industry needs the strongest ownership base possible for De Beers, which would presumably include private and public investors with aligned interests, i.e., to make the diamond industry succeed long-term with smart management and sufficient investment,” he said.
Anglo American publicly confirmed its intention to offload De Beers in May 2024 as part of a broader restructuring.
In an interview conducted earlier this year, Cook said the company’s separation from Anglo American likely will be complete in the first half of 2026.
When asked again about the timeline of the sale on Wednesday, De Beers referred all questions to Anglo American.
An Anglo American spokesperson said while the company cannot comment on specifics related to the De Beers deal, it continues to move forward with the sale of its 85 percent stake in the company.
The spokesperson said Anglo American also is preparing for a potential initial public offering (IPO) of De Beers on a stock exchange, a possibility Bloomberg reported on back in March.
“We are engaging the Government of Botswana and other stakeholders [in the process], as you would expect,” he added.
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