Zimbabwe Ventures into Higher-Value Mining

RAPAPORT... The Zimbabwe government has installed a crushing plant atits Marange diamond deposit as it aims to shift from alluvial operations tohigher-value mining. The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) hopes toincrease annual output to 10 million carats within the next five years, the nation'sMinistry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services said in a Twitterpost last week. To that end, it has commissioned the new facility so it can treathard rock under the surface - an activity known as conglomerate mining, which ismore expensive than alluvial mining but produces higher yields. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been trying toreform the nation's diamond industry and increase transparency. Corruptionclaims plagued the sector under the leadership of former president RobertMugabe, who was ousted in November 2017. ZCDC recovered 1.8 million carats of rough diamonds in 2017, mainly from Marange, and a further 1.6 million carats in the first half of thisyear. It planned to unearth 3 million carats in 2018. Image: The Marange diamond fields.