eBusiness Weekly
Martin Kadzere
Zimbabwe sold diamonds worth US$114 million this year, significantly higher than 2018 sales, according to latest figures from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe.
The value of diamonds sold by State-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, was US$45 million sold through two auctions, Tongai Muzenda, general manager of MMCZ told Business Weekly in an interview.
Murowa Diamonds, a unit of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed RioZim, sold diamonds worth $62 million.
“In terms of value, we are much better than last year,” said Muzenda.
Zimbabwe sells diamonds mined by ZCDC through auction where buyers are invited to bid.
This is different from Murowa, which sells its diamonds directly to preferred customers.
The third auction for ZCDC diamonds is currently ongoing where 28 buyers from Dubai, India, Belgium and South Africa are participating.
About 316 000 carats are being auctioned and 80 percent of the diamonds are gems, said Muzenda.
“If everything goes well, we are expecting good returns because the bulk of the parcel are gems,” he said.
ZCDC was formed in March 2016 after Government evicted all diamond mining firms in the Chiadzwa fields following the expiry of their licenses.
Some of the mining companies affected included Mbada Diamonds, Anjin Investments, Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company, Jinan, RERA, Kusena and Gye-Nyame.
The Government has since restored Anjin’s mining license.
Zimbabwe is looking at ramping up diamond production with negotiations with some global investors including Alrosa of Russia, which intend to extract the mineral ongoing.
According to the Zimbabwe National Diamond Policy, ZCDC, Murowa Diamonds and two other companies will be permitted to undertake diamond exploration and mining.
Apart from Chiadzwa diamond fields, ZCDC has also been conducting exploration in Mwenezi where 40 percent of Zimbabwe’s kimberlite diamonds are found. Kimberlites are geological formation of igneous rock in which diamonds are sometimes found.
Zimbabwe has more than 130 known kimberlite pipes and dykes, which occur in clusters.
The Mwenezi cluster is known to have bulk of the kimberlite pipes and dykes, varying size.
While 40 percent of the known kimberlites are found in Mwenezi, this might not translate to national output by a similar magnitude due to variations in the pipe size, grades, economic viability as some dykes might not be diamondiferous.
Last year, diamond exports were only US$29 million, weighed by depressed production by ZCDC.
However, the company sees production rising to one million carats this year after the company took delivery of new mining equipment from Belarus.
This could catapult export earnings to US$100 million this year.
