The Botswana government said there was no guarantee that it would be able to renew a new 10-year sales agreement with De Beers before the end of December, when the current one expires, as the coronavirus pandemic has delayed negotiations. “The ideal situation would be to end the talks by December but there are no guarantees that will happen,” said Mmetla Masire, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.