Leveraging decades of market-leading expertise and technology in diamond mining and processing, Upstream Technology now offers the broader mining sector a range of capabilities and solutions across the entire project lifecycle.

Formed in 2024 by De Beers Group through the strategic merger of De Beers Marine and Ignite (formerly known as De Beers Technologies), Upstream Technology combines the expertise of the Group’s technology and marine diamond recovery businesses.

According to Simangele Soni, Senior Business Development Manager at Upstream Technology, the result is an integrated set of specialist capabilities spanning mineral processing, marine diamond recovery , engineering, automation and project delivery.

“By bringing together two established businesses, we have created an integrated technology and technical solutions  provider with the potential to serve a much broader mining market,” Soni says. “We can now offer end-to-end integrated solutions to the mining industry.”

She highlights that the company’s capabilities extend across the entire project lifecycle, from innovation and technology development through engineering, manufacturing and project execution to commissioning and ongoing maintenance support.

“This breadth of expertise distinguishes us from conventional equipment manufacturers and engineering contractors,” she explains. “Rather than supplying individual technologies or undertaking isolated engineering assignments, we can combine these capabilities to deliver complete solutions.”

A key advantage of this integrated model, she points out, is the ability to offer customers more comprehensive solutions to their operational challenges. Previously, customers purchasing diamond recovery equipment could acquire individual processing units, for instance.

“Today, Upstream Technology can combine its processing technologies with plant design, engineering and maintenance capabilities to deliver an entire processing facility,” she says. “Our experience in marine diamond recovery  provides an important foundation for this expanded offering.”

For decades, the company’s marine engineering teams have designed and delivered complex mining systems for De Beers' offshore operations, developing specialised expertise in areas ranging from advanced mining tools; sense of mining solutions; automated processing and integrated management systems.

“This experience is now available to the wider mining industry, with our engineering capabilities extending well beyond diamonds,” Soni says. “We have processing technologies which are immediately applicable in commodities like coal and iron ore but there are also engineering solutions that can be transferred across many other mining environments.”

This breadth of expertise also enables Upstream Technology to address the technical complexity of mining projects more effectively, she adds. By bringing multiple engineering disciplines together, the company can consider the interactions between different components of a system from the outset, rather than treating each element in isolation.

“This combines systems thinking with systems engineering,” she explains. “The former provides an understanding of the overall challenge and the interdependencies between subsystems, while the latter ensures that individual components are designed and integrated to achieve the required performance.”

Equally important to this approach is close collaboration between the company’s specialists and clients’ operational teams. Direct engagement with those responsible for key performance indicators helps ensure that solutions address practical operating requirements, including considerations that may not be fully captured in technical specifications.

Looking ahead, Upstream Technology intends to extend its integrated project delivery capabilities into other commodities while continuing to develop its established diamond recovery technologies.

“Our marine engineering and maintenance expertise offers opportunities beyond diamond mining,” Soni says. “So, while we remain experts in diamond recovery and diamond solutions, we are now looking at how we can use our experience to apply our technical solutions and technologies in other commodities.”

Through this broader approach, Upstream Technology aims to build on its established technical heritage while offering mining companies a more integrated route from engineering innovation to operational performance.