Zimbabwe targets to jump diamond production
Production
to jump 500%
to
be of 10mn cts by 2025
The
Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) plans to increase production of
diamonds by 488 percent to 10 million carats in the next five years from 1.7
million carats produced last year. To hit that target, Morris Mpofu, the ZCDC
chief executive officer told delegates attending the on-going Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) conference the company will set aside an investment
envelope of about $400 million.
The
yellow metal target, he highlighted, will place Zimbabwe as one of the top five
rough diamond producers in the world. “(Our) business strategy is part of
corporate entrepreneurship, enterprise development and sustainable business
growth to create the necessary mineable diamond resource and achieve diamond
production levels of 10 million carats per year from 2022,” Mpofu said.
“He
added: “This will place Zimbabwe on the top five world rough diamond producers.
This year, ZCDC has a strategic intent to grow its production to three million
carats from 1.7 million carats produced last year.” Mpofu disclosed that the
company would invest about $400 million into its operations by 2025.
“ZCDC
has its vision 2025, which is aimed at investing a total of $400 million from
2018 to 2025 to build the necessary capacity across the entire diamond value
chain from exploration, mining, processing and diamond value management,” Mpofu
said. Mpofu said there was need to invest in exploration. Zimbabwe has not
carried out comprehensive exploration to determine the extent of diamonds in
the country.
Exploration,
which helps the country with geological data, is the most important part of the
mining cycle, a process through which commercial concentrations of resources
are discovered. It covers activities from preliminary collection of existing
geological data to drilling and sample assays.
ZCDC,
which plans to carryout diamond exploration in Mutare district, has since
engaged the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre to
conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study for the diamond
exploration project at Mutare Rural District Portal Q, an area which was
previously mined by Diamond Mining Company (DMC).
“What
we need to do is to invest in exploration and bring out the resource’s
potential to generate the much needed resources for the country,” Mpofu said. “Diamonds
are a low volume and high value resource, but have a significant macroeconomic
bearing for the country such as helping the country generate the much needed
foreign currency, fiscal revenue contribution and infrastructure development,”
he added.
ZCDC,
a State-owned diamond entity which currently contributes about 75 percent of
the country’s diamond production, gained control of all diamond concessions in
Chiadzwa, a ward in Mutare District two years ago.
There
were several companies mining diamonds in Chiadzwa, including Mbada Diamonds,
Marange Resources, Anjin Investments (which was jointly owned by the Chinese
military and their Zimbabwean counterparts), DMC, Jinan, Rera, Kusena and Gye
Nyame.
The
diamond mining companies had, however, hit a hard rock and alluvial deposits
had been depleted. Now, ZCDC, plans to extract conglomerate diamonds. The
consolidated diamond mining company’s method has already started paying
dividends and expects a continuous improvement by the coming of more machinery.
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