admin
Lloyd Gumbo Harare Bureau—
THERE are a number of conditions that Zimbabwe has to meet before it starts selling diamonds locally, government and players in the industry have said. They said the country would have to first establish a one stop shop for diamonds dealing and insist on value addition to the precious gems before selling them so that the country can benefit.
Players in the diamond extraction and beneficiation sector said the country was losing huge sums of money by exporting precious gems before value adding them.
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo said policies would be put in place to ensure the country benefited from its gems.
“We need to clean, cut and polish the diamonds before we start selling here,” he said.
“We must also have a diamond centre where everything will be centralised because at the moment things are happening at various centres.
“Like the Minister (Walter Chidhakwa) has already said, we are putting legislation to make sure not less than 10 percent gem, not less than 10 percent semi-gem and not less than 10 percent industrial are sold to beneficiation players in the country. We are indeed driving toward ensuring that we sell here.”
Some of the miners at Chiadzwa said Zimbabwe was losing a lot of money by selling the precious gems outside the country.
Marange Resources acting chief executive officer, Mark Mabhudhu, said there was a need for the country to conduct its diamond sales under one roof.
“We also need a robust IT system able to manage parcels so that they can be tracked and people can use the normal bar-coding system and tight security,” he said. “We should also make sure our stones are cleaned, sorted and evaluated properly so that we have a reserve price of the parcel at the market. If you are not happy with the price, you can always decide to try somewhere else.”
Diamond Mining Company (DMC) board chairperson, Brigadier-General (Rtd) Ezekiel Zabanyana said Zimbabwe should expedite the process of ensuring the country sells the diamonds locally.
“At the moment, buyers from outside the country are not happy with the bureaucracy here because it takes too long for them to get the product after paying for it. We need to first establish something like a one stop shop for diamonds so that we smoothen the process,” he said.
DMC general manager, Ramsey Malik said it was important for Zimbabwe to open its market to every interested buyer just like the Dubai Diamond Exchange Centre and the Antwerp system.
He said the screening and registration of buyers took about two weeks resulting in potential buyers preferring other auctions where it took about 24 hours to process everything.
“In Dubai and Antwerp it took 24 hours yet in Harare it would take weeks to process papers. We need to establish a one stop office where all papers are processed and the product handed over to clients within 48 hours after receipt of funds.
“Let all the companies agree to hold a sale at the same time. Invite the maximum number of customers and process papers on time,” said Malik.
Zimbabwe Diamonds Technology Centre chairperson Lovemore Kurotwi, said beneficiation of the precious gems was a prerequisite for selling diamonds locally.
“The setup at the moment is punitive because it doesn’t encourage beneficiation to take place because those with licenses are just gambling.
“The law must say at least 95 percent of the diamonds must be value added so that we can benefit as a country. If government is serious about value addition then we must do like what other countries are doing in the region where they value add their gems and sell them locally.
“But for us to sell the diamonds locally, we need to have a diamond centre where everything is centralised than have a situation where buyers have to go through different offices,” said Kurotwi.
Online Reporter