When BCL mine was closed, the official Government position was that the mine was a doomed business case.
The Government rejected all advice to the effect that prices of commodities like copper were cyclical. And that bleak as it all seemed, it was just a passing moment.
Marooned by creditors, the Government opted to place BCL under liquidation.
It was a legal tactic designed to circumvent legal obligations to the creditors.
In the meantime thousands of lives were destroyed ÔÇô irreparably.
Some of the former BCL employees chose to take away their lives for they could not see hope in the mist of their misery.
The closure of BCL was a tragic strategic lapse.
Commodity market price, which after a terrible slump is now on an upward trajectory best highlights the tragedy that has been BCL.
Right now Government is trying to work up the media to create an impression that the still to be announced details of sale to the United Arab Emirates would be a corporate coup of sorts.
As the sole shareholder in BCL, Botswana Government, instead of rushing to close down BCL should have learnt from other miners in a similar or even worse position like Glencore and Anglo American.
Of all the mining houses the world over, Glencore was easily among the worst hit by commodity trading prices.
Same with Anglo American which had announced sale of assets as a way of circumventing the slump.
Anglo has since called off that sale.
For their part, Glencore which owing to the collapse in commodity prices registered a huge loss running into billions in dollars has recently announce a profit. And is well on its way to declaring a dividend of more than a billion dollars.
Just like BCL, access to debt was a big issue at the time for these companies.
But cost cutting measures and access to what cash reserve had been stockpiled during the good times saved these companies.
And with commodity prices now recovering handsomely these companies are back to their best self.
The long and short of it is that the management and more especially the shareholders of these companies took a long term view.
And now they are reaping results for their visionary leadership and business acumen.
Glencore, together with their partners, the Qatari Sovereign wealth Fund are now on a buying spree.
Since the recovery of copper prices started, they are now among the world’s biggest producers of copper after buying a series of mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Unfortunately for BCL, what was initially perceived to be its biggest strength ÔÇô access to state guaranteed debt became its Achilles heel.
The dividend of more than a billion Pula that Botswana Government demanded and received from BCL a short while before the crash of commodity prices was by far the biggest mistake that the company has had to grapple with.
That dividend was badly timed and it denied BCL the kind of financial war chest that the company needed as a cushion when prices ultimately collapsed.
