President of the Republic of Botswana, HE Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi was the headline attraction this morning at Paydirt’s Africa Down Under Conference in Perth, where he acknowledged the event as the leading forum for African investment and government relations.
His Excellency described Botswana as a “resource rich, Southern African country with a credible record of prudent mineral exploration and exploitation.”
Botswana recognises the importance of both sound governance and economic policies and embraces the role the mining industry plays in the country’s socio-economic development. The country, like others at Africa Down Under, recognise the significant role international investors and partnerships with multinational corporations in growing their own mining sectors.
His Excellency said the significant contribution mining made to Botswana’s export value, gross domestic product and employment was much needed for the country’s citizens. He said for these reasons the Botswana Government was committed to improving policies and legislation to ensure the country remained “the investment destination of choice”.
The Botswana Mineral Policy was adopted in 2022, with the purpose to guide the development and growth of the mineral sector.
“The key objectives of the policy include: One, maximisation of economic benefits to the nation, while enabling private investors to earn competitive returns. Two, creation of a competitive environment to stimulate private sector investment in mineral development. Three, improved linkages with the wider economy and for generation of local employment opportunities,” His Excellency said.
In its current state, Botswana’s fiscal regime for non-diamond minerals has low royalty rates, competitive law, tax rate, and capital redemption making the country’s regime highly attractive.
“Furthermore, the Fraser index for best practice mineral potential index has moved Botswana from a low score of 31% in 2021, to 73% in 2022.
“This surge in rankings shows that Botswana’s policies, laws and prospectivity landscape are viewed favourably as being investor friendly by the global community.”
In addition, the Fraser Institute rankings for investment attractiveness index and policy perception index demonstrates Botswana is among the best performing jurisdictions globally, with a score of 70%.
The Botswana Government’s current focus is identifying the potential for mineral resources and to make geoscience information easily available to various private investors in order to encourage metal prospecting.
Botswana Geoscience Institute recently commenced systematic exploration programmes, such as countrywide mapping, to increase prospectivity and improve exploration coverage. Mapping has historically concentrated on the Eastern aspect of Botswana, leaving the rest of the country – mainly covered by the Kalahari Desert – unexplored, with unknown mineral prospects.
His Excellency said the impact of funding issues on attracting further exploration business was impeding the “realisation of potential and the growth of the sector”.
This is a global problem and is not unique to Botswana. This is one of the drivers for the Government focusing on global partnerships and collaborations with both public and private companies to assist Botswana in attracting and retaining capital investment in its mining industry.
Current interest in Botswana stretches across the Northwest and Ghanzi district, with several Australian companies actively exploring. These recent activities have led to the first Australian company, Sandfire Resources, beginning mining in Botswana.
HE Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi greeting Paydirt Media Executive Chairman Bill Repard after his address
