Debswana currently has an old stand-alone Sorthouse facility located at Jwaneng that is handling concentrate produced from all of the Debswana mines. A decision was made to relocate and integrate this final diamond sorting facility into the existing Fully Integrated Sorthouse (FISH) building (located at the mine). The objective of the new Sorthouse facility is to handle up to 50 million carats of diamonds per annum.
The Jwaneng mine is located in Southern Botswana, approximately 120 km west of the city of Gaborone, and is owned by Debswana (a partnership between De Beers and the Government of Botswana).
Debswana currently has an old stand-alone Sorthouse facility located at Jwaneng that is handling concentrate produced from all of the Debswana mines. A decision was made to relocate and integrate this final diamond sorting facility into the existing Fully Integrated Sorthouse (FISH) building (located at the mine). The objective of the new Sorthouse facility is to handle up to 50 million carats of diamonds per annum.
Debswana engaged Lycopodium, through its local Botswana office ADP Kukama (ADPK), on a cost-reimbursable basis to undertake the detail design of the new Sorthouse.
The scope included the integration of various gloveboxes into an existing materials handling system (including inventory control, transaction recording and auditing integration) and providing the required office space and recreational areas required for the Sorters. The gloveboxes are used to manually sort tailings from the source material and will export a minimum of 99.5% diamond by weight to the Debswana Diamond Trading Centre located in Gaborone.
