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Clemence Manyukwe News Editor
DIAMOND revenues and the value of the gems have fallen in a development that is partly attributed to the transition from surface mining to deeper, hard rock extraction. The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Fred Moyo told Parliament on Wednesday that $453 million was realised from diamond sales in 2013 and the figure dropped to $350 million last year. He said there was also a drop in diamond volumes by 33,7 percent under the same period.
He added that auctioning of diamonds was underway in Harare this week.
“Honourable members should note that before December 2013, diamond sales were conducted locally by tender system before government decided to benchmark its sales on the international market.
“In 2014, total diamond sales at international auctions amounted to 5.9 million carats valued at $350 million compared to 8.9 million carats valued at $453 million realised in 2013.
“This represents a 33,7 percent drop by volume and a 22, 7 percent drop by value but a 14 percent increase on unit price in 2014,” said Deputy Minister Moyo.
“This volume drop in sales reflects a drop in production, which is a result of transition from mining loose gravels to hard rock mining of conglomerates that involved drilling, blasting and crushing of ore resulting in longer lead times and higher production costs.”
He said diamond production at the Chiadzwa diamond fields alone last year stood at 4,331,577,79 carats.
He added that there was an investigation concerning 400,000 carats of diamonds but did not give further details.
Deputy Minister Moyo also said he could not state how much went to the fiscus from diamond sales.
“Revenue to the fiscus comes from several contributions such as royalty, Pay As You Earn, Corporate Tax et cetera which are all collected by Treasury.
“As a result, the Ministry of Finance is better placed to respond to the issues on revenue contribution,” said the deputy minister.
He added that very little exploration has been done in the country to come up with the national mineral balance sheet.
“The current exploration that has been done has been done by private companies only around the mines where they operate, but the royalties for minerals marketing is going to go into the MPC Company that we have formed.
“It will be charged with the responsibility of using mineral royalties to explore the whole country,” he added.
“So, that is a lot of work that has to be done and it will be done by government itself whilst private companies can continue to do what they have always been doing.”
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