By Business Reporter – Saturday 18 July 2020
LOCAL – HARARE (Mining Index) – DIAMOND production FY2020 is projected at 2.1 million carats, Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube this week revealed during 2020 Mid-Term Budget and Economic Review presentation.
“Diamond output in the first quarter of 2020 surpassed same period last year by about 17%, largely on account of increased production from Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC),”
“However, the subsector faces challenges on power supply, COVID-19 impact on production, demand and hence depressed prices. Resultantly, capacity utilisation was around 40% during the first quarter of 2020,”
“In view of these developments, diamond is projected at 2.1 million carats in 2020,” said Mthuli.
According to Mthuli, 147,935.00 carats were produced in January, 197,188.68 carats in February, 195,815.47 carats in March while 194,750.00 carats were recorded in April with a total output of 735,689.15 carats achieved for the first half of 2020 excluding the month of May.
The Zimbabwean diamond industry has projected to increase production to about 10 million carats per annum by 2022. To reach this ambitious target, Zimbabwe needs to produce a minimum of 833,333.33 carats per month.
Former ZCDC CEO Morris Mpofu in 2018 revealed the state-owned entity had an anticipated production output of 250 000 carats per month.
Previous projections show that ZCDC anticipated an annual diamond output of 4.1 million carats FY2019 while 2.4 million carats was projected FY2018.
In 2018, ZCDC produced 2.8 million carats. ENDS// www.miningindex.co.zw
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