Botswana’s president Mokgweetsi Masisi has issued a warning to diamond miner De Beers after acquiring a 24% stake in HB Antwerp.

Masisi has threatened to ditch the country’s relationship with De Beers unless it receives a larger share of rough diamonds as part of a sales agreement that is due for renewal in June.

The relationship with De Beers has made Botswana one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa whilst supplying the company with 70% of its rough diamonds. The joint venture with De Beers, known as Debswana, is a key source of employment and tax revenue for Botswana, and around a third of the country’s GDP is fuelled by diamonds.

However, President Masisi is demanding Botswana receives a bigger share of diamonds than the current 25% of production, Financial Times reports.

Botswana, last week, purchased nearly a quarter of Belgian diamond processing and trading firm HB Antwerp, with the company aiming to boost transparency within the diamond supply chain, piling the pressure on De Beers.

According to HB Antwerp’s co-founder, Rafael Papismedov, the association would help the country be liberated from being “stuck in a box that says you can only dig and wash the diamonds”. 

Moreover, De Beers said it supplied $1 billion of rough diamonds into facilities that employed close to 4,000 people in Botswana at the end of last year and were “excited by the potential to build on this foundation.”

However, according to the independent diamond analyst Paul Zimnisky: “I don’t think there’s anywhere near as much hostility behind the scenes,” he said, going on to say that the agreement is recognised as one of the fairest within the mining industry, the FT report adds.

“I think it would be very difficult for the government to walk away from De Beers completely,” said Peter Leon, partner and Africa chair at Herbert Smith Freehills. “Botswana could not easily end the sales agreement while it is also in separate negotiations with De Beers over renewing mineral leases,” he stated.

That said, a diamond mining expert at the International Peace Information Service, Hans Merket, said: “The president is very serious about his threats to walk away from the marriage. It’s making many people in the diamond industry nervous.”