Botswana Bonanza

When the African republic of Botswana was born in 1966, its future seemed as bleak as most of its arid countryside. A landlocked nation the size of France, occupied largely by the Kalahari Desert, the former British protectorate was suffering from six years of drought, an impoverished government, and a subsistence economy based almost entirely on cattle raising. Now, discoveries of vast mineral deposits promise to lift Botswana above the problems shared by the rest of black Africa's non-oil-producing countries.

The bust-to-boom turnaround in Botswana began in 1967 with the discovery of the world's second largest diamond "pipe," a gem-rich geological formation nearly a mile across. The government's part ownership with De Beers Consolidated Mines, plus tax receipts from diamond exports, earned the country some $25 million last year, but that was only the beginning. Geologists reckon that the pipe may be good for 500 years of mining, and they have discovered a second one 30 miles away whose diamond deposits could be even more profitable.

Yet diamonds are not Botswana's only friend. Copper and nickel are now being mined in the eastern part of the country and shipped to the U.S. for refining. The mining machinery will soon be powered by Botswana's coal. Mineralogists have found that perhaps 400 billion tons of coal--almost two-thirds of the proven reserves in all of Europe--lie beneath the country's soil. Additional recent copper and nickel discoveries have been labeled "very promising" by representatives of U.S. Steel, and deposits of manganese, asbestos and gypsum have yet to be developed.

Botswana's growth has proceeded smoothly, largely because of the policies of burly, Oxford-educated President Sir Seretse Khama, 53, a forceful advocate of both multiracial democracy (the population is about 98% black) and a mixed economy. Other black African regimes have leaped to 100% nationalization of foreign interests, but Sir Seretse has limited his government's share of Botswana's mineral income to part ownership of mining operations plus tax revenues. Plenty of profit and incentive remain for foreign investors, chiefly from the U.S. and neighboring South Africa.

This arrangement has been strongly endorsed both by Botswana's voters, who gave Sir Seretse a landslide election victory in his bid for another five-year term last October, and by Western aid programs. Canada has financed a dam in the northeast to store scarce water, and the U.S. has loaned $16 million for the building of a 200-mile all-weather road to Botswana's northern border. Britain, Sweden, Norway and the United Nations have committed $31 million in grants and loans, mostly for manpower training and rural development.

Plenty more is needed. Most of Botswana's 600,000 citizens have had virtually no schooling, and 85% still support themselves directly or indirectly by cattle raising. Though its gross national product has more than tripled in the past eight years, to $230 million, Botswana has less than 100 miles of paved roads and no airstrip large enough to accommodate jet planes. Even so, Sir Seretse has grown confident enough in the future to make what amounts to a second declaration of independence: Botswana will withdraw from a customs union with South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland and, some time in 1975, will introduce its own currency. No doubt the next step, once a few proper runways are laid down, will be a jet-equipped national airline.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.