Botswana’s Diamond Technology Park is ready for use, its owner Safdico said on Wednesday.

From the main road between Gaborone’s airport and the city centre, a cluster of modern buildings and rows of young trees are visible.

While rural life around the Park is still evident with goat herds flocking around the perimeter fence, its future as a centre for diamond activity is beginning to take shape.

The $50 million project – located a stone drop from the new DTC Botswana supply – is now preparing for a bigger launch once an atrium building and mini factory building are ready in June 2008.

Meanwhile Safdico, the South African diamond company, began production at its factory in the park last month.

“We haven`t built a factory for mass production, but a high-tech, capital intensive factory suited to polishing the top-end. We know from experience that this is the only kind of operation that works viably in Africa," Safdico’s Shanee Orbach told PolishedPrices.

Steinmetz, the Geneva-based Diamond Group, will begin manufacturing next month, while Leo Schachter, the Israeli diamond company, is also building a facility on site.

Other occupants include Botswana’s Department of Mines, the local Police, Sarin Technologies, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), First National Bank, as well as Malca Amit, and Brinks, the shipping companies.

Two junior mining companies, DiamonEx and African Diamonds are looking at opening offices in the park.

The concept of the park, Safdico said, is that of a supply chain cluster creating opportunities for small, medium and micro enterprises and generating greater efficiencies and security for all.

“The centre will place Botswana at the top of the diamond technology curve, in keeping with the Botswana government’s vision for the establishment of a downstream diamond industry," the company said on its website.