Botswana's Damtshaa Diamond Mine will reopen in 2012, Debswana has announced.

Mmegi.com reports that the diamond company – a joint venture between De Beers and the Botswana government – e-mailed Business Week, confirming that Damtshaa would open next year and operate at full capacity. The company noted that in 2008, the mine had produced over 500,000 carats of rough diamonds.

Esther Kanaimba-Senai, Public and Corporate Affairs Manager for De Beers, said that thanks to improved market conditions in the global diamond industry, the group expected to produce more diamonds than in 2009, but was "not in a position to give actual figures."

Kanaimba-Senai said that the group was still compiling final figures on diamond production for 2010, but that it had "definitely exceeded" the 2010 target of 20 million carats.

According to Mmegi.com, Debswana produced 17 million carats in 2009, a year still reeling from the effects of the global financial crisis. As the diamond trade began to recover, the company set an initial 2010 diamond production target of 20 million carats, which was later upped to 23 million carats.