The DTC obtains its rough diamond supplies from De Beers Group mines in South Africa and Canada, as well as its joint-venture mines in Botswana and Namibia. It also currently purchases stocks from Russia, and other producer countries, however the contract between the Russian producer Alrosa and the DTC will terminate at the end of 2008. De Beers is hopeful that its Canadian mines which became fully operational in 2008 will compensate for the shortfall.

 

The rough gem diamonds purchased by the DTC are sorted into more than 12,000 categories by weight, shape, quality and colour and then valued by highly skilled staff at the company’s sorting offices in Gaborone.

 

The DTC sells its rough diamonds to clients, known as 'Sightholders'.  These sales take place in London, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia over a one-week period, 10 times a year.

 

Rough diamonds are sent to the manufacturing centres around the world.  The greatest volume of stones is below one carat and is usually manufactured in cutting centres where cheaper labour is a competitive advantage. The largest concentrations of polishing facilities are in Mumbai and Surat in India.

 

Larger stones are typically polished in Antwerp, New York, Tel Aviv and Johannesburg although the dominance of these centres is decreasing.

 

Manufacturing over the last 10 years has shifted increasingly from Belgium, New York and Israel to India and China. Also, with their policy of beneficiation, DTC is helping producer countries such as Botswana and Namibia establish local manufacturing initiatives to benefit the wider population through job creation.

 

Once polished, the diamonds are sent to the main polished-diamond trading centres situated in New York, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Mumbai and more recently, Dubai. From there diamonds are sent to wholesalers, jewellery manufacturers and retailers around the world.