(IDEX Online) - As part of its plan to grow its diamond mining sector, the government of Zimbabwe has cut mining royalties from 15 percent to 10 percent of gross revenue, according to reports in Zimbabwe's The Sunday Mail.
In his budget, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube pointed out the difficulty of extracting diamonds from deep deposits. The cut in royalties reflects the increased cost in mining.
"In order to promote investment in exploration and extraction, I propose to review the royalty on diamond from 15 percent to 10 percent of gross revenue, with effective from 1 January, 2020," he said, as reported in The Sunday Mail.
Zimbabwe aims to increase production from 3.2 million carats to 6 million carats by the end of 2023. At its peak, the country produced 12 million carats of diamonds a year.