‘ZCDC gems to be value-added locally’

MINES minister Winston Chitando says Aurex Holdings (Aurex) will this year start processing gems mined by the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).
Experts say the country can generate as much as US$8 billion and create over 200 000 jobs annually from cutting and polishing diamonds locally.
“An arrangement has been made whereby the diamonds will be value added at Aurex. An agreement between the two companies has been signed and we look forward to its implementation in the next few weeks,” Chitando told the Parliamentary portfolio committee on mines and mining development last week. Aurex, a division of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has capacity to process between 2 500 and 10 000 carats of rough diamonds per month depending on the size of the stones.

Winston Chitando, Minister of Mines.

In March 2016, Aurex acquired machinery from India to cut and polish diamonds. The company has core staff that has been trained by expatriates from India in the art of cutting and polishing diamonds and plans “not only to add value to the country’s rough diamonds, but to champion the setting up of a diamond cutting and polishing value chain industry in Zimbabwe”.
Set up in 1992, the company produces and sells jewellery in the domestic and export markets. Its operations are carried out in a custom-built high security facility covering over 4 000 square metres in Ruwa, 25km east of Harare.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) says Zimbabwe has lost billions of dollars due to failure to add value to its diamonds.
The southern African country exports more than 90 percent of its industrial diamonds in unpolished form and there has been insignificant beneficiation within Zimbabwe, which entails cutting and polishing and jewellery manufacturing.

Of the six stages of the diamond supply chain namely, exploration, mining, sorting, cutting, polishing and jewellery manufacturing, only the first three occur in Zimbabwe.
ZCDC’s chief executive Mark Mabhudhu has previously said that the rough diamonds sector was worth between $10 billion and $15 billion, but this can rise to $100 billion further down into cutting and polishing as well as jewellery manufacturing.
ZCDC is looking at ramping up production of close to three million carats this year.

“The ministry has been working with ZCDC to come up with a strategic plan for the company to produce to its optimal level. This strategic plan has been in the making for some time but I must say I would like to commend the board and the new chief executive for giving impetus to that strategic plan, which has seen ZCDC’s financial operations improving substantially,” Chitando said.
The country’s diamond output has remained depressed since the government kicked out miners in the Marange fields and nationalised their operations to form the ZCDC in 2016.

At its peak in 2012, Zimbabwe’s diamond output reached 12 million carats but production plunged spectacularly to a paltry 961 000 carats in 2016. The following year output reached 1,8 million carats and then leapt to 2,8 million carats in 2018.
In 2019, diamond production again tumbled to a paltry 1,6 million carats, with the ZCDC citing economic challenges, chief among them, power cuts and fuel shortages.
The government expects to increase diamond production to 11 million carats by 2023 as part of an ambitious plan to raise mining output and earn the country $12 billion a year.
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