The bright rooms of a maternity wing, the hush inside a museum, antelope stepping through morning grass, all this made possible by betting on a dream and making lives brilliant through passion and commitment.
Orapa learned long ago to turn stones into public purpose. Today that lesson lives in the present.For all the ambition, the present is simple enough. At OLDM only Orapa mine is in operation, while Letlhakane and Damtshaa mines rest in care and maintenance. Orapa’s first process plant has given its last shift. Plant 2 now carries the rhythm. That footing matters because everything that follows, from energy to education, needs a steady beat.
The story begins on ladders and rooftops. South Gate meets the sun each morning on a seventy-kilowatt solar array. The Administration Block carries one hundred and twenty kilowatts on its roof, the Technical Block one hundred and fifty, and the Process Control Centre three hundred.
In the yard, quiet vehicles slip into trial duty as fully electric machines machines learn their routes, and hybrids take the shifts that suit them. Inside the plant, electricians swap in premium efficiency motors, the night crew sees by LED light, load managers shave the peaks, and well-kept haul roads save diesel one pass at a time.
Cleaner fuels are under study, from biodiesel supply to hydrogen injection on mobile equipment, and engineers are testing ideas like trolley assist and battery electric fleets. As Orapa General Manager Mogakolodi Maoketsa puts it, these steps show “OLDM’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and progressing toward its net zero by 2030 target.”
Summer rain comes hard in this country. Stewardship shows in how a site behaves after a storm. Around Orapa, return water circuits send process water back to work, storm water is guided where it should go, and residue storage is designed for endurance rather than headlines. The six cell fines facility is a promise to keep the footprint tidy while the mine looks toward mid-century.
Each choice is small. Together they become the difference between extraction and care. The circle of attention has widened, from thirteen villages to twenty-one, and the priorities are close to the ground. Education and skills. Health and wellbeing. Livelihoods. Food security. Water and sanitation. That is how the reach of a mine becomes something you can feel in a schoolyard or a clinic corridor.
The budget walks before it talks, with Debswana setting aside P30 million each year for community development across its operations, with P10 million for OLDM. The needs of the district ask for more than one line in a ledger, so another P10 million or so is raised with Business partners and events. In 2024, the GM’s Charity Walk alone brought in P4.9 million. Money moves quickly into ground work, for example, in Boteti P12 million is committed over three years for local roads, and 5.8 kilometres are already complete in Rakops and Letlhakane. The numbers are plain but the result is a smoother trip to school, to clinic, to work.
At Letlhakane Primary Hospital the new maternity wing handed over in 2020 has already served more than nine thousand patients and welcomed over four thousand babies. The price tag P5.3 million reads small beside what it holds. In Rakops, the Tsienyane Special Education Block brings three purpose-built classrooms and a workshop to learners who needed a room designed for them, delivered at P5.2 million. These are rooms where the future sits down and begins.
Enterprise has become a focal point for Debswana through several initiatives. Through Debswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme, OLDM has spent P6.83 billion with citizen companies since 2019. Across Debswana the five-year tally to December 2024 stands at more than P23 billion. The Textile Accelerator has directed about P20 million of protective clothing orders to local makers across Jwaneng and OLDM. Training runs beside the orders, through Tokafala, ABSA ESG, the UNDP programme, and a partnership with Stanbic provides P1 million a year in grants to local SMMEs for five years from 2024.
A good town needs places to learn, to remember, and to breathe. In Orapa the Game Park has grown into a green belt and a destination. The Adrian Gale Museum keeps the story close enough to touch. The Orapa Training Centre helps keep the site safe and the district employable. A planned business park aims to give enterprise a permanent address. These are the moorings that make Orapa feel like a place, not a camp.
Work like this needs rooms where people can speak and be heard. OLDM brings village leaders in from the start of projects and works with the District Commissioner and Council Secretary. A Stakeholder Accountability Strategy uses Village Development Committees as community forums. The mine sits on district planning bodies, from Disaster Management to Economic Development to the Development Committee, and each year the General Manager gives a business update to the District Full Council. It is patient work. It is also how trust lasts.
Through the ‘Orapa Today and Boteti Tomorrow’ programme which started in 2011, Debswana’s intention is to build a sustainable alternative economy for the district now and beyond mining. “We want to create a corridor linking Orapa and Makgadikgadi Pans and other tourist destinations. Orapa Game Park has since been extended to facilitate this journey as we believe tourism shall sustain the region after mining. Further, we have initiated food security projects that will submit the region going forward” OLDM General Manager Mogakolodi Maoketsa highlighted.
Orapa Today, Boteti Tomorrow (OTBT) project, a multi-faceted development initiative that aims to use diamond mining as the catalyst for further development, an important consideration in a post-mining environment is OLDM’s main transformational initiative.
Today is about making Orapa a great place to live, work and visit demonstrated by the best hospital, the best schools, zero harm and zero crime – a truly harmonious community, sports and coaching – quiet place to walk and play with children –safe and secure.
Tomorrow is to position Orapa as the Hub or Capital of Boteti and the gateway to the Makgadikgadi. “We want to create a corridor linking Orapa and Makgadikgadi Pans and other tourist destinations. Orapa Game Park has since been extended to facilitate this journey as we believe tourism shall sustain the region after mining. “The Adrian Gale Diamond Museum has also since been completed and is currently operational. The museum aims at supporting socio-economic activity post mining. Further, we have initiated food security projects that will sustain the region going forward”
Interms of post mining plans, Debswana implements a closure planning and rehabilitation process that looks at impact brought about to the physical environment by mining operations as well as the socio-economic post closure prospects for Boteti region.
The proposed future land uses for the mining lease areas are grazing for Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines while Orapa Mine takes a transformative approach into game conservation and tourism through its existing Game Park and township infrastructure.
Areas which have very little mining related disturbances will be converted to free range grazing. Controlled grazing will be practiced in areas that would have been disturbed by mining activities. Areas such as fine residue dumps (FRDs) or slimes dams have a potential to be used for low intensity grazing if managed properly & the areas will be fenced off considered sensitive until rehabilitation is proven safe & sustainable.
According to the State of the Environment Report the Land Use for the Boteti District is pastoral/arable/residential for all the 3 OLDM lease areas are positioned. “Our future thinking includes making land productive post closure, creating more employment opportunities and provide inputs for other industries”. Maoketsa said.
OLDM maximizes socio economic opportunities, which will endure beyond the life of the mine. The operation strives to engage in regional collaborative development and socio-economic development to ensure sustainable development beyond mining, examples of these are food security projects that OLDM is currently implementing for communities in the region.
