Industrial diamonds manufacturer Element Six’s Shannon, Co Clare, site is to undergo a major expansion, costing €25m and bringing engineering jobs to the area. Forty jobs are to be created in total.
Once completed in 2015, the upgraded facility will offer an enhanced production capability, supplying a wide range of advanced industrial synthetic diamond abrasive materials for customers across the globe.
Over the next six months, high-pressure, high-temperature presses in conjunction with associated processing facilities will be installed in a new advanced materials synthesis facility on the Shannon site. There will also be other incremental site upgrades made to further enhance the site’s production capacity and capabilities.
A member of the De Beers Group, Element Six designs, develops and produces synthetic diamond supermaterials.
These are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing, while the extreme properties of synthetic diamonds beyond hardness are already opening up new applications in a wide array of industries, such as optics, water treatment, semiconductors and sensors.
“Element Six and its parent company De Beers are synonymous with the Shannon Free Zone going back many years and have delivered much appreciated, high value jobs during that period,” said Rose Hynes, chairman of Shannon Group plc.
“This announcement by the company today is a major statement of confidence in their operations at Shannon and, indeed, in the competitiveness of the West of Ireland region generally.
“This sends another clear signal that the region is a positive location for investment and Shannon Airport, with direct flights into the US, UK and Europe and one-stop connectivity to pretty much every market in the world, plays a key role in this by ensuring industry can connect around the globe from here with ease.”