Hard times lie ahead for the people of Jwaneng, a town of 15,000 in southern Botswana. The world’s richest diamond mine, a mainstay of the local economy, will be mothballed until mid-April at least following a collapse in global demand.

Even for Botswana, for long the model of how a poor country can use its minerals to build a path from poverty, there is no escape from the the financial crisis.