Diamond Pipeline

• Prospecting; involves geologists finding diamond deposits in different areas. Prospecting is vital to the future survival of any diamond business as there is a predicted supply-demand gap.

• Mining and Recovery; once diamonds have been discovered and surveys shown that it is financially viable to mine them, they are now recovered from the ground. The manner in which they are mined and recovered depends on their source, thus, where they are found (either from the Kimberlite pipes, their mother rock or from the seabed and coast).

• Sorting and valuing; process of sorting and valuing of diamonds, categorizing them according to size, quality, model and color. DTCB sorts and values Debswana’s production.

• Cutting and polishing; refers to manufacturing of diamonds; the process of turning rough diamonds into polished.

• Polished Market; this is referred to as the ‘diamond exchange bourse’, a place where diamonds are traded. These are located in some of the world’s major diamond manufacturing centres, e.g. Belgium.

• Polished diamonds find their way to Jewellers and Consumers through Wholesalers and Retailers.