When De Beers found diamonds in Botswana in 1967, it set a newly independent nation on a course to become one of Africa’s wealthiest countries.
Almost 60 years later, a ferocious attack by Botswana’s government on Anglo American’s sale of one of the world’s most valuable diamond producers has shown just how quickly that long relationship has hit the rocks.
The country’s mining minister told the Financial Times last week that President Duma Boko was serious about turning Botswana’s 15 per cent stake in De Beers into “full control over this strategic national asset”, as tensions rise during the worst slump in the diamond market in decades.