Botswana to join Belgium’s Antwerp as second center for rough diamond certification

Botswana will soon join Antwerp in Belgium to become the second certification center globally to verify the origin of rough diamond for exports to Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized countries, the nation’s presidency said Thursday (28 November).
Following a ban on Russian diamonds issued by the G7 in January this year, Antwerp was selected two months later as the sole location able to certify the origin of rough diamonds and issue G7 certificates. Now this move constitutes a critical addition to the Group of Seven’s efforts to keep Russia-mined diamonds from entering any of the G7 nations. As the world’s largest diamond producer by value and also the sorting center for all De Beers Group’s goods, the southern African country’s certification and verification hub will be up and running “as soon as possible” in 2025.
The G7’s move comes also in response to complaints by African diamond producers that making Belgium the sole verification center led to disruptions in the global diamond supply chain. Botswana’s presidency said in a statement that the permission to set up a verification center was granted following “intensive” discussions with the G7 Diamond Technical Team. The country’s minister of minerals Bogolo Kenewendo said that it was a logical move to grant Botswana, the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds, the right to certify rough stones. She, however, added that said not only Botswana, but also other diamond-producing countries, such as Angola and Namibia, have a track record in verification and certification under the so-called Kimberley Process and therefore the latter should also be recognized verifiers.