Story by Owen Mandovha, Business Reporter
African governments have made significant progress in growing the continent’s diamond sector through complying with global best practices.
African countries involved in diamond production have failed to derive maximum value from the precious mineral owing to compliance issues in the production and marketing of the precious mineral as prescribed by the Kimberly Certification Process.
This has resulted in the formation of the Africa Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) which has gone a long way in aligning trade to global best practices.
As Chairperson of ADPA, Zimbabwe has convened a meeting of other diamond producers in Harare for a three-day conference to take stock of progress made in integrating and boosting the continent’s diamond industry.
“Africa as a whole has had issues with Mining and trading in demands due to complaints issues as ADPA we meet every year to take stock of measures we have taken to resolve outstanding issues to do with compliance,” said Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Permanent Secretary, Mr Pfungwa Kunaka.
On the local scene, diamond production has now reached six million carats annually, while the elimination of middlemen in trading is allowing the country to get fair value.
“The use of middle means that as a country we are losing a lot of money but at the moment we are now attracting reputable buyers. The sector is currently producing 6 million carats from 4 companies and the government has set a target of 10 million carats from the 4 diamond-producing companies in the country,” he added.
Zimbabwe is compliant to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which is a boost to the industry prospects, with the government setting a target to produce 10 million carats a year to attain a three billion United States dollar diamond industry.
