<p>Families from Chiadzwa village were relocated to Arda Transau, 24km from Mutare in 2009, while in 2004 at Murowa Diamond Mine, 926 people were relocated, among several other cases.</p>
The country has made significant headway in its quest to grow the mining sector to US$12 billion in the next two years from US$2,7 billion realised in 2017 driven
Zimbabwe’s Murowa Mine Sees Output Fall
RAPAPORT. Production of rough diamonds at the Murowa mine in Zimbabwe declined 15% in 2020 amid a move to lower-grade resources.
Output came to 579,000 carats for the full year, compared with 685,000 carats in 2019, owner RioZim said last week. The drop in production was primarily due to the processing of lower-grade ore from the K2 portion of the mine following the depletion of the site’s higher-grade K1 ore the previous year, the miner noted.
Total revenue at RioZim, which also owns gold, chrome and energy assets, rose to ZWD $3.14 billion ($8.7 million), versus ZWD 577.1 million ($1.6 million) a year earlier. The company, which separated from Rio Tinto in 2004, reported profit of ZWD 452.7 million ($1.3 million) compared with a net loss of ZWD 581.4 million ($1.6 million) in 2019.
Prior to the discovery of the Marange diamond fields, the country had two known diamond mines.
The two are Rio Tinto’s Murowa Diamond Mine and a privately-owned River Ranch Mine.
For years there was a deafening silence regarding the diamond industry in Zimbabwe, until Marange gems dredged up on the scene in 2006 sparking what is commonly known as a diamond rush.
Harare dispatched ruthless security personnel in a frantic bid to bring sanity in the diamond area.
Civic groups, however, claimed thousands were killed during the clean up exercise, an allegation the Zimbabwean government refuted.
Smuggling of diamonds also became rampant; while some overzealous civic groups branded Marange stones, “blood diamonds”, a move that later saw the Kimberley Process suspending the export of these gems.