Diamond-Rich Botswana Secures Larger Stake in New Deal With De Beers Group

De Beers Group and the Government of the Republic of Botswana have agreed to a new 10-year sales agreement that will see Africa's sixth-richest country gradually upping its share of the rough diamonds produced at its prolific Debswana-operated mines from 25% to 50%.

About the size of France, the landlocked republic in southern Africa produces more high-quality diamonds than any other country in the world, except for Russia. Botswana's diamond output was 23 million carats in 2021 and accounted for about 21% of global production.

The country is also the home of the Jwaneng mine, the world’s richest diamond mine by value. Jwaneng and three other diamond mines are operated by Debswana, a 50-50 partnership between De Beers Group and the Government of the Republic of Botswana.

According to the Debswana website, the Jwaneng kimberlite pipe was discovered in 1971 in the Naledi River Valley (Valley of the Star) under 30 meters of Kalahari sand. At the time, there were only about 60 people living in the region, which was called Jwana. The mine’s high-grade ore now contributes between 60% and 70% of Debswana’s revenue.

Last year, the De Beers Group obtained about 70% of its rough diamonds from Botswana.

With the expiration of the previous sales agreement looming on June 30, it was critical for the London-based De Beers Group to secure a deal that would extend the partnership for a new era. Late on Friday, right at the deadline, the two parties announced the new sales contract and mining licenses.

The new 10-year sales agreement will immediately see Botswana claiming 30% of Debswana's production, up from the current 25% and progressively increasing to 50% at the end of the 10-year period. Those diamonds will be sold via Okavango Diamond Company (ODC), which is wholly owned by the Botswana Government.

A new 25-year extension of Debswana mining licenses will secure that joint venture through 2054.

In addition to the sales and mining agreements, De Beers pledged to accelerate Botswana’s economic diversification through the creation of the Pula Diamonds for Development Fund, with an upfront investment by De Beers of $75 million and further contributions over the next 10 years that could total up to $750 million.

De Beers' goal is to create the potential for tens of thousands of new jobs in Botswana, both within an expanded Botswana-based diamond industry and emerging sectors, with a focus on supporting the growth of a knowledge-based economy. Currently, diamond mining accounts for one third of the country's gross domestic product.

“For De Beers it is a privilege to renew our half-century partnership with the people of Botswana," said Al Cook, CEO, De Beers Group. "It is a partnership that is highly regarded around the world for the enduring role it has played in creating economic development and growth. Our transformative agreement reflects the aspirations of the country, secures the future of our Debswana joint venture, and reaffirms De Beers’ leadership position for the long-term.

He continued, "The agreement represents our commitment to deliver investments in Botswana’s diamond production, Botswana’s diamond value chain, Botswana’s knowledge-based economy and, above all, the people of Botswana.”

Credit: Jwaneng Diamond Mine photo courtesy of Debswana.com.

Donation of Carmen Lúcia Ruby Is Testament to Dr. Peter Buck's Everlasting Love

A nuclear physicist by trade, the late Dr. Peter Buck is famous for making one of the most lucrative investments in US history — and for donating the 23-carat Carmen Lúcia Ruby to the Smithsonian as an everlasting tribute to his beloved wife. The ruby is the official birthstone for the month of July.

The investment part of the story begins in 1965 when a 17-year-old college student named Fred DeLuca sought advice from family friend Dr. Buck on how to pay his tuition at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. With an idea to open a submarine sandwich shop and an initial $1,000 investment from Dr. Buck, the two formed a business partnership that would ultimately change the landscape of the fast food industry.

DeLuca honored his benefactor by naming the shop “Pete’s Super Submarines.” That single store has since grown into the mammoth Subway chain, with 37,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Only McDonald's has more restaurants worldwide (about 40,000).

Dr. Buck was able to parlay his good fortune into acts of philanthropy, which leads us to the gemstone part of the story...

Since 2004, visitors to the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, have marveled at the Carmen Lúcia Ruby. Prominently displayed in the showcase titled “Rubies and Sapphires,” the gem has the distinction of being the largest faceted ruby in the collection and one of the finest Burmese rubies ever known.

The Carmen Lúcia Ruby is named for Carmen Lúcia Buck, the beloved second wife of Dr. Buck, who provided the funds for the Smithsonian to purchase the stone after her passing in 2003. Carmen had been undergoing cancer treatments in 2002 and had seen photos of a magnificent ruby that she learned might be coming on the market after being in private hands for decades. Carmen had hoped to purchase the ring to celebrate her recovery.

Sadly, she would never wear it.

Instead, Dr. Buck would gift the Carmen Lúcia Ruby to the American people with the assurance that it would go on permanent display.

“So it seemed like a really appropriate thing to do, to give it to the nation so people could come and see it,” he told The New York Times in 2004. “She would have really liked that people could see it and know it was the Carmen Lúcia Ruby, and that it wasn’t locked away in a vault somewhere.”

At the time, National Gem and Mineral Collection curator Jeffrey Post called the Carmen Lúcia Ruby "the most important addition to the collection in the 20 years that I’ve been here."

Sourced in the fabled Mogok region of Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1930s, the Carmen Lúcia Ruby displays a richly saturated red color with undertones of pink and purple, a coveted hue known to gem experts as "pigeon blood red." The oval-cut stone is set in a platinum ring and flanked by two trillion-cut white diamonds weighing a combined 2.38 carats.

In January of 2023, The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation (PCLB) announced that it would be receiving Dr. Buck's 50% stake in the Subway restaurant chain. Forbes estimated Buck's stake to be worth upwards of $5 billion.

Noted Carrie Schindele, Executive Director of PCLB, "This gift will allow the Foundation to greatly expand its philanthropic endeavors and impact many more lives, especially our work to create educational opportunities for all students, work Dr. Buck cared so deeply about."

Credit: Photo by Chip Clark/Smithsonian.

Music Friday: Some See the Diamond, Some See the Flaws in 'Way Way Back'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, the witty Matt Nathanson uses diamond themes to poke fun at failed relationships in his 2018 release, "Way Way Back."

Nathanson explained that couples who have just broken up like to say, "We just want what's best for each other." But the 50-year-old Massachusetts native joked to an audience recently that his reality is much different, especially when an ex-girlfriend has found someone new.

"I hope that you find a little bit of happiness," he said. "I hope you find slight satisfaction, but I hope nothing that happens to you ever equals how amazing we had it."

He sings, "Some people see the diamond / Some can only see the flaws / We made perfect little movies / That no one ever saw."

He goes on to touch on the famous "A Diamond Is Forever" slogan in his next line: "I didn't know that forever only meant forever 'til you found someone better."

Nathanson was candid about the inspiration behind writing "Way Way Back." He told his audience that when he found out that an ex-girlfriend was about to get married, he decided to "go deep" into the Instagram of her future husband.

"The bummer is when you realize the person is kinda funny and kinda handsome, and maybe a step up," he said. "But you don't want to admit that. So you write a song called "Way Way Back."

The song appears as the first track on Nathanson's 10th studio album called Sings His Sad Heart, which was released in October of 2018.

Nathanson, who is best known for his platinum-selling record "Come On Get Higher," has performed on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Bachelor and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

He is currently touring with Matchbox Twenty. The tour runs through August 6 and includes appearances in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Please check out the "Way Way Back" official video. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

"Way Way Back"
Written and performed by Matt Nathanson.

Last flare from the lifeboat
Last air in my lungs
By now even I know
That you’ve got someone

Some people see the diamond
Some can only see the flaws
We made perfect little movies
That no one ever saw

I didn't know that forever only meant forever 'til you found someone better
(Someone better than me)
Some day its gonna hit you, you’ll see it clear as crystal like a photograph

No one else gonna love you like that
No one else gonna love you like that
I’ll stay in your mind, you can always find me in the way way back
No one else gonna love you like that
Gonna love you like that

I'm sure he’s easier than I was
If you like that sorta thing
He looks better with his shirt off
Yeah, but can he sing?
(yeah yeah yeah yeah)

Winter sun setting early
and my shadow’s getting long
Radio just want to hurt me
Puts you in every song

No one else gonna love you like that
No one else gonna love you like that
I’ll stay in your mind, you can always find me in the way way back
No one else gonna love you like that
Gonna love you like that
Gonna love you like that

Didn't know that forever only meant forever 'til you found someone better
(Someone better than me)
Some day its gonna hit you, you’ll see it clear as crystal like a photograph

No one else gonna love you like that
No one else gonna love you like that

I’ll stay in your mind, you can always find me in the way way back
No one else gonna love you like that
Gonna love you like that
Gonna love you like that

Credits: Photo by Ralph Arvesen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Connor McDavid Sweeps Top NHL Awards, Delivers Pear-Shaped Diamond

It is the best of times for Edmonton Oilers superstar center Connor McDavid. In addition to sweeping the NHL's top awards for the 2022-2023 season and leading his team to the Western Conference Semifinals, the 26-year-old managed to squeeze in a romantic marriage proposal to his long-time girlfriend, Lauren Kyle.

Kyle, who is the founder of Edmonton-based Kyle and Co. Design, turned to Instagram last Thursday to share a series of pics from their engagement, including a close-up shot of her pear-shaped diamond ring set on a delicate, split-shank yellow gold band.

Her caption read, "22.06.23 was the best day of my life. I cannot put into words how happy I am to be spending the rest of our lives together. Almost 8 years of growth, happiness and so much love and I can’t believe we have so much more to look forward to."

In the post punctuated by a Loudly Crying Face emoji and White Heart emoji, Kyle, 27, added that she knew David was her person from the day they met.

"I can’t wait for the beautiful life we are going to create together," she continued. "Thank you for the most thoughtful, picture perfect proposal that I could never have imagined. I love you more than anything."

Along with the proposal shots, she included a pic of their beloved miniature bernedoodle named Lenard (The pooch has 19,000 Instagram followers).

In an Instagram post seen by his one million followers, McDavid shared similar pics and wrote, “Excited to see what our future holds. You are the most loving, passionate and amazing person. I am a very lucky man.”

And the week got even better for the former #1 draft pick.

On Monday, he swept the top individual honors at the NHL Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. He scooped up the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player and the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL Players' Association's most outstanding player.

Late in April, the Oilers captain won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL scoring champion as well as the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal scorer. The talented playmaker led his Oilers to a first-round playoff victory against the Los Angeles Kings, but lost in the Conference Semifinals to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

McDavid's memorable 2022-2023 season included career highs in goals (64), points (153) and assists (89). He became only the third player in NHL history to lead the league in each of those scoring categories.

According to published reports, the couple met by chance eight years ago when they reportedly bumped into each other at the wrong location while trying to find a mutual friend's birthday party. They currently share an estate in Edmonton that was designed by Kyle. The home is so spectacular that it was featured in the pages of Architectural Digest.

Credits: Images via Instagram.com / laurenkyle1.

Geologists Predict Untapped Diamond Wealth in Antarctica and Western Australia

East Antarctica and Western Australia could be hiding an untapped wealth of rough diamonds, according to geologists at the University of Wollongong.

Employing supercomputing power from the National Computational Infrastructure in Canberra, Australia, the geologists set out to explore the dynamics that propel diamonds to the surface from deep within the Earth.

What they found were giant "pillars of heat" rooted 2,900 km (1,800 mi) below ground, just above our planet’s core. The pillars provide the fuel that connects the very deep Earth to the surface via volcanic eruptions of an igneous rock known as kimberlite. It is believed that natural diamonds typically form at a depth of 150 to 200 km (93 to 124 mi).

Ömer F. Bodur and Nicolas Flament at Australia's University of Wollongong created three-dimensional geodynamic models of Earth’s mantle that accounted for the movement of continents on the surface and into the mantle over the past one billion years.

Via their modeling, the geologists were able to explain most kimberlite eruptions over the past 200 million years, specifically in Africa, Brazil, Russia and partly in the United States and Canada. They reported that exactly 178 eruptions occurred in Canada, followed by South Africa (158), Angola (71) and Brazil (70).

In a surprising twist, the geologists also mapped previously unknown kimberlite sites in East Antarctica and the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Once explored, these locations could provide a brand new source of valuable diamonds, as well as crucial minerals, such as cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements.

The research was published last month in the journal Nature Geoscience. The researchers also co-authored a piece about the subject at the scholarly website, The Conversation. You can check out their article here…

Credit: Images of loose diamonds and Ekati Diamond Mine courtesy of Arctic Canadian Diamond Company.