Diamond Sorting and Valuation

(claritybw.com) - In the same year that Botswana‟s first diamond mine at Orapa was established in 1971, the Government of Botswana formed the Botswana Diamond Valuing Company (BDVC). In 1982, the BDVC sorting building, known as Orapa House, was opened in Gaborone and was the tallest and most sophisticated building in Botswana at the time. After sorting and valuation, diamonds were sold to the De Beers Central Selling (CSO) Organisation in London, which has now been replaced by the Gaborone-based De Beers Global Sight-holder Sales (DBGSS) in 2013. Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), a 50:50 joint venture partnership between the Botswana Government and De Beers, replaced BDVC in 2006. Today, DTCB currently sorts the diamonds mined by Debswana into around 14,000 categories. The DTCB new Head Quarters, opened in 2008 (Fig. 18), has the capacity for sorting and valuing up to 45 million carats per year and is able to accommodate up to six hundred employees. The sorting process ensures the correct valuation of all production. It also ensures that a consistent supply of rough diamonds can be delivered to the DTCB‟s customers (called sight-holders), who are among the world‟s leading diamantaires.