Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Walter Muchinguri
21 August 2008
Harare — Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono told political leadership in Mashonaland Central at the weekend that the parastatal had only managed to raise US$15 million from its diamond mining activities so far.
ZMDC took over diamond mining in Marange sometime last year after the Government moved in to curb diamond smuggling in the area.
"This confirms what I have always been saying that what the parastatal is simply doing is mechanised panning, it has no capacity to mine diamonds," he said.
The proceeds from ZMDC's operations are a far cry from approximately US$50 million that was being earned by dealers on a monthly basis, and then smuggled out of the country.
Dr Gono last year indicated that the country could have been prejudiced of US$1,3 billion in potential revenue from diamonds.
Such an amount could have gone a long way in assisting the country meet its foreign currency obligations for a number of essential services.
ZMDC is a Government-backed mining firm, which is responsible for extracting a variety of minerals including chrome and gold.
It started operations in Marange last year after the discovery of diamonds at surface level.
The revelation comes as a United Kingdom-based mineral exploration company, African Consolidated Resources has declared that it would aggressively pursue the exploitation of the Marange diamond deposit as a priority once a political settlement has been reached.
The company has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development over the diamond deposits.
The company dragged the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to court over rights to the deposits sometime last year and the matter is yet to be finalised.
In March this year the company announced in its financials that it was forging ahead with the construction of a trillion dollar highly specialised plant for the extraction of diamonds in Marange inspite of the court case.
The plant was expected to be completed this month as well as a sample processing laboratory.
Government through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has maintained that the diamond fields belong to the people of Marange and Zimbabwe as a whole and has mandated the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation to take charge of mining diamonds in the area.
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