Jwaneng is an open-pit kimberlite diamond mine in southern Botswana, approximately 120 kilometres west of the capital Gaborone. It is operated by Debswana, a fifty-fifty joint venture between the Government of the Republic of Botswana and the De Beers Group, and is widely cited in the trade and in the financial press as the richest diamond mine in the world by value of recovered production.

Discovery and development

The Jwaneng kimberlite pipes were discovered in the early 1970s by De Beers prospectors, who used pioneering helicopter-mounted geophysical and stream-sediment techniques to locate the orebody beneath several tens of metres of overlying Kalahari sand. Three principal pipes, designated DK1, DK2 and DK4, were identified and shown to be of high-grade gem quality. The mine was developed jointly by De Beers and the Botswanan government and entered commercial production in 1982.

Production and quality

Jwaneng produces approximately 11 to 13 million carats per year, although annual figures vary with mine planning and economic conditions. By volume Jwaneng is not the largest mine in the world, but the average value per carat of its production is among the highest of any major mine, with a high proportion of gem-quality goods and a relatively small share of industrial-grade material. The mine has, in good years, accounted for between sixty and seventy percent of Debswana's total revenue.

Cut-9 and life-of-mine

The original open-pit operation has been progressively deepened through a series of cutbacks, with the Cut-8 expansion completed in the 2010s and the major Cut-9 expansion underway through the 2020s and projected to extend the open-pit life of the mine into the late 2030s. Beyond the open pit, an underground project has been studied to extend the life of the mine for several further decades. The underground project would be among the largest underground diamond mines ever developed.

Operating context

The Jwaneng operation has been central to Botswana's emergence as one of the most prosperous countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Diamond revenues from Jwaneng, together with the Orapa-Letlhakane-Damtshaa complex, have funded substantial infrastructure, education and healthcare investment in Botswana since the 1980s. The Debswana joint venture is one of the most-cited examples of successful resource-revenue partnership between an African government and an international mining company.

Trade significance

For the international diamond trade Jwaneng matters as one of the principal sources of high-value rough goods, and as a backbone of De Beers's contribution to the global rough supply. Sightholder allocations from De Beers in the Sights system are heavily underwritten by Jwaneng production, and the mine's quarterly and annual production figures are a closely watched indicator of overall rough-goods availability in the international market.