Industrial diamonds manufacturer Element Six has announced plans to create 40 new jobs as part of a major expansion at its Shannon plant.

The company, which is part of the De Beers Group, said it is to make a €25 million capital investment and relocate an additional €20 million of assets over two years to the site.

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.

Element Six products are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing, while the extreme properties of synthetic diamond beyond hardness are already opening up new applications in a wide array of industries such as optics, water treatment, semiconductors and sensors.

The company, which marked 50 years in Shannon last year, was at the centre of a dispute over its pension scheme earlier this year.

Separately, Nando’s has announced the creation of 28 jobs at its new restaurant in the Omni Park Shopping Centre in Santry, Dublin 9.

Nando’s currently employs more than 400 people at nine stores across the Republic and three more in the North.