ZCDC Sets Production Target of 10 Million Carats per Year

Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), is planning to invest $400 million under its vision 2025 plan. The company has reportedly set a production target of at least 10 million carats (2 tonnes) a year in the next four years.

ZCDC is expected to produce at least 10 million carats of the precious stones by 2023, cited a news report.

This is against the background that the firm only managed 0,9 million carats in 2016, which it then bettered to 1,8 million in 2017 and is well on course to meet its 3 million carats target for 2018.

Of the total investment, approximately $200 million is likely to be funded through reinvestment from the firm’s diamond sales earnings while the remaining $200 million will come through foreign direct investment.

Further, the news reports stated that the strategy is contained in the state miner’s Diamond Value Management (DVM), which will primarily target exploration – especially in light of the depletion of the easy to mine alluvial deposits – evaluation, mining and diamond processing to unbundle the real value of the diamonds. Resource exploitation will however not be confined at the famed Chiadzwa diamond deposits, but will also target other deposits in Chimanimani as well as known kimberlites in Chihota and Mwenezi.

As part of its target, the company has reportedly invested in a Mega Diamond Recovery (MDR) plant to recover large and high value stones that were previously not incorporated in the previous plant operations resulting in failure to mine out high value stones. The MDR will also be used on the old dump from pre-consolidation mining and could see the recovery of even more larger stones.

Source: The Herald