Diamonds in Botswana

PostBy Avi Paz Group At 15.08.2010

A 1955 search for diamonds in Botswana turned up three small stones on the banks of the Motloutse River. Unusually in the history of diamond prospecting, the discovery wasn't pursued for over a decade. In 1967, another diamond prospecting mission – in which geologists from De Beers participated – found the Orapa kimberlite pipe, and the Orapa Mine began operating in 1971.

Orapa, like all of Botswana's diamond mines, is owned by Debswana – a partnership between De Beers and the Botswana government. Orapa is the largest diamond mine in the world by area, sitting on two kimberlite pipes that cover 1.18 square kilometers at the surface. Botswana's Letlhakane Mine, some 190 kilometers west of Francistown, was opened in 1975.

In 1982, Debswana opened a third mine in Botswana. Jwaneng,  located in the Kalahari Desert in the Naledi River Valley, is the world's richest diamond mine by the value of recovered diamonds, producing 9.3 million tons of ore per year containing 1.25 carats of rough diamonds per ton.
Damtshaa Mine, the newest diamond mine in Botswana, began producing in late 2003 and projections put the mine's production span at 31 years, with a yield of 5 million carats of rough diamonds from a total 39 million tons of ore.

In 2009, Botswana was the third-largest producer of rough diamonds in the world. The Kimberley Process Annual Global Summary puts Botswana's 2009 output at 17,734,000 million carats worth $1.43 billion.