Pluczenik Botswana, a Diamond Trading Company sightholder, has broken ground on a new diamond sorting and polishing facility in the Diamond Technology Park in Gaborne, news outlets report.



The company intended to open its new Botswana diamond manufacturing plant in 2008 but the plan was delayed because of the world financial crisis, which sent the diamond industry into a tailspin.



CEO Chaim Pluczenik spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, saying that the company would be bringing in $4 million of cutting-edge diamond polishing equipment and expected the new plant to be operating by December 2011. The new facility is expected to employ an additional 300 workers.



According to Pluczenik, industry experts from abroad will train the local employees in sorting polished and rough diamonds, which the company intends to continue sourcing from DTC Botswana.



Botswana's Minister of Minerals, Energy, and Water Resources, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, also attending the ceremony and called the new plant a "milestone in the diamond cutting and polishing industry in Botswana."