HARARE: Zimbabwe sold 1.4 million carats of rough diamonds worth 75.92 million U.S. dollars from local tender sales in the first four months of the year, state owned Herald reported on Thursday, citing statistics from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe.
Last year Zimbabwe conducted its first ever diamond tender held in the country at the newly constructed diamond sale facilities in Harare.
The diamond tender attracted 410 buyers, which was the highest number of buyers for the local gems.
Diamond export receipts last year declined to 350 million U.S. dollars from about 466 million U.S. dollars in 2013 while annual exports dropped to 5.9 million carats from 8.9 million carats the prior year.
However, Zimbabwe hopes to recover from the decline in exports following the discovery of about 105 kimberlites in Marange diamond fields, east of Harare, with some companies having started the exploration of the kimberlites deposits moving away from alluvial mining.
Zimbabwe holds about 25 percent of the world’s reserves of opencast extractable diamonds, the government says. Diamond output peaked at 12 million carats in 2012, accounting for 8 percent of the global output, making Zimbabwe the world’s sixth largest diamond producer.
