2 million carats produced in 9 months: ZCDC

Natasha Chamba, Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) has produced two million carats of gems in the past nine months, reflecting a 47 percent increase when compared to the same period last year, chief executive officer, Dr Morris Mpofu, has said.

He indicated that increased exploration and fresh green field projects were expected to result in overall diamond production reaching the targeted three million carats by year end.

“The company has produced two million carats of diamonds from January to date. This reflects that diamond output has increased by 47 percent from 1,3 million carats in the same period last year,” he said in an interview.

“We are really convinced of the efforts that we are doing to unlock value in the commodity such that we are also on course to achieve the desired results on the back of our strategic plan.”

Dr Mpofu said that ZCDC was also aiming at producing at least 10 million carats by year 2023.

“ZCDC intends to achieve this (10 million carats) milestone through investment of $400 million in exploration and evaluation, mining, processing and DVM,” he said without elaborating on the figures.

Zimbabwe resumed diamond auctions last week, but attracted fewer international buyers than expected.

The auction attracted 32 buyers mainly from Asia, the Middle East and Africa and no record of proceeds has been given.

The state-owned diamond mining firm is mainly extracting conglomerate diamonds in Chiadzwa in eastern Zimbabwe while exploration for kimberlitic diamonds has also started.

Dr Mpofu said resource exploitation will, however, not be confined to Chiadzwa diamond deposits, but will also target other deposits in Chimanimani as well as known kimberlitic in Chihota and Mwenezi.

Government has said it was formulating a new diamond policy to attract fresh capital and investment as well as ensuring communities around the diamond fields’ benefit from the resource by imposing a legal requirement for meaningful corporate social responsibility programmes. – @queentauruszw