Inside the world's richest diamond mine

Monday, December 07, 2015

Gaborone, Botswana (CNN): Debswana's Jwaneng mine is a giant cauldron of pale dust, 2 kilometers across at its widest point and patrolled by colossal 300-tonne trucks that labor up the terraced slopes.

The operation, owned as a joint venture between De Beers and the government of Botswana, is the richest diamond mine in the world and, as managing director Albert Milton says, "one of the most important assets in the country."

Nicknamed "the Prince of Mines", Jwaneng was opened in 1982, as the diamond trade propelled Botswana from one of the poorest countries on earth to one of Africa's wealthiest.

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