daniel chigunwe
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
DIAMOND mining activities in Marange still have at least 40 more years in the area that the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) is operating from, Post Business has learnt.
This was revealed by ZCDC’s finance and business analyst, Mr Albert Nerumedzo, in his presentation during a two-day media workshop hosted by the State diamond miner in Mutare last week.
“As ZCDC, we are only about seven years old in Marange and projections are that diamond mining can still be done, at least in the area under ZCDC alone, for the next 40 years, so we are still there,” said Mr Nerumedzo.
He said the diamond industry in Zimbabwe in general is still young, adding that the big expectations on the industry’s impact are based on misinformation or lack of information.
“We are a young industry. When we say we have made a revenue of US$200 million, for example, people should know that one does not spend their revenue, they spend the profit.
“From the US$200 million you make, only about US$70 million is profit. But for the income to really be there, that is in terms of the top line, it means even the manufacturing sector has to come to the table.
“Of the US$200 million we are making, 65 percent of it ends up in foreign markets because they have the infrastructure and the equipment to support the mining sector.
“Most of the equipment we are using in the sector is coming from South Africa. All the other inputs that we are using are all coming from foreign countries.
“This is why the sector contributes about 70 percent of forex in this country, but when it comes to GDP, it comes down to about 16 percent. This is because you have to correct the value chain for you to expect mega things.
“We are producing diamonds and a lot of the wealth is being retained locally because we are supporting the industry from a manufacturing point of view,” he said.
Mr Nerumedzo added: “From 2016 to 2022, ZCDC has grown its revenues from US$46 million to US$290 million. That is a significant growth but for us to start to see that footprint, more has to be done. As the size of the cake grows, the downstream industries will do the same,” said Mr Nerumedzo.
In his keynote address during the same workshop, Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza urged ZCDC to continue doing more in its corporate social responsibility drive.
“To date, I am proud that our State miner, ZCDC, has not only created employment for the people of Manicaland Province, but is also giving back to the community and supporting national development.
“ZCDC has set a target of US$6 million as part of its corporate social responsibility, thus contributing towards the improvement of health, education and infrastructure, among others.
“Allow me to encourage the ZCDC leadership to continuously invest more towards uplifting livelihoods of the people of Manicaland and Zimbabwe at large through embarking on more initiatives supporting our communities,” said Minister Mugadza.
The workshop brought together more than 40 journalists from various local and international media outlets and was held under the theme ‘Equipping the media to achieve informative and responsible diamond mining reporting’.
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