Diamond giant De Beers expects the newly formed Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Botswana to manufacture over $550-million of rough diamonds a year by 2010, the company said on Tuesday.

“Once operational, DTC Botswana will be the largest and most sophisticated rough diamond sorting and valuing operation in the world, valuing in excess of 36-million carats a year,” the company said.

The Botswana government and the De Beers group, which jointly own the venture, on Tuesday announced the members of the DTC’s board of directors.

As well as sorting and valuing all of Debswana’s production, the 50:50 partnership will carry out local sales of aggregated mixes and marketing activities to support the establishment of sustainable local diamond manufacturing operations.

The two parties had agreed previously that the chairpersonship of DTC Botswana would be held by De Beers for two years, after which it will revert to the government of Botswana in exchange for the chairpersonship of jointly-owned diamon-mining company Debswana.

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