PHILLIMON MHLANGA
State-owned diamond mining company, the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) is set to commission a $100 million conglomerate diamond plant in Chiadzwa, a ward in Mutare District, before year-end.
Winston Chitando, the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, disclosed that president Emmerson Mnangagwa would open the plant, which is currently doing “hot commissioning” in preparation for the official commissioning by Zimbabwe’s president.
“We have from the Chiadzwa area, the mining which has been taking place, has been largely from alluvial diamond,” Chitando said.
“Now, ZCDC is undertaking conglomerate mining and that requires a different plant process for enhanced efficiency from what we have had before. (Therefore), ZCDC is commissioning a plant costing $100 million which has a capacity to produce 450 tonnes per hour to process conglomerate diamonds. It will give enhanced capacity.
The new conglomerate plant is expected to be commissioned by His Excellency President Mnangagwa in the last quarter of 2018,” Chitando added.
Last week, Chitando, announced that ZCDC generated $28,3 million from a recent local diamond auction. This was the country’s first sale of the yellow metal since February this year after ZCDC had temporarily exited the market to allow for the development and implementation of an effective diamond value management framework and establishment of a robust marketing and sales strategy.
Chitando also said ZCDC and MMCZ would conduct two more tenders between October and December this year.
From January to December 2019, ZCDC expects to sustain its diamond sales and supply to its customers from its stock holdings and increased production resulting from the full utilisation of its new conglomerate plant.
ZCDC 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 has begun to extract conglomerate diamonds.
The diamond mining company recently announced 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.
The yellow metal target, he highlighted will place Zimbabwe as one of the top five rough diamond producers in the world.
