eBusiness Weekly
Martin Kadzere
State-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) has started exploration works for kimberlite diamonds in Mwenezi in the southern parts of country believed to have potential of significant deposits of the mineral, a senior official said.
Kimberlites are geological formation of igneous rock in which diamonds are sometimes found.
Zimbabwe has more than 130 known kimberlite pipes and dykes, which occur in clusters.
The Mwenezi cluster is known to have bulk of the kimberlite pipes and dykes, varying size.
Establishing commercial value
Morris Mpofu, the chief executive of the ZCDC, told Business Weekly the exploration was meant to ascertain the degree of commercial value of the kimberlites.
“When considering the geographical distribution of the known number of kimberlite pipes and dykes in Zimbabwe, Mwenezi has more than 50 known kimberlites concentrated in the area,” he said.
“They are about 40 percent of the known kimberlites.
“ZCDC is heavily involved in a structured and intense exploration programme evaluating Mwenezi kimberlitic in a joint venture with Mining Promotion Corporation.”
However, Mpofu said while 40 percent of the known kimberlites are found in Mwenezi, this might not translate to national output by a similar magnitude due to variations in the pipe size, grades, economic viability as some dykes might not be diamondiferous.
“The conclusive position will be determined from exploration and evaluation,” he said.
Exploration works includes gravity and ground magnetic geophysics. The geophysics methods ran on some of the kimberlite pipes in Mwenezi have successfully delineated the kimberlite pipes and dykes ore body outlines. Pitting and trenching is in progress for geological mapping to further increase the confidence levels of the ore body outline.
Major diamond mining (conglomerate) in Zimbabwe is currently taking place in Chiadzwa in the eastern parts of the country.
Stockpiling diamonds
However, the country is only stockpiling all the diamonds it is mining in Chiadzwa after the High Court barred the ZCDC from selling diamonds mined from Mbada concessions.
Mbada was among nine companies that was evicted from the Chiadzwa diamond fields following the expiry of their licenses. Some of the companies affected include, Anjin Investments, Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company, Jinan, RERA, Kusena and Gye-Nyame.
New diamond policy
The Government is in the process of formulating a new diamond policy, which will lead to the unbundling of the ZCDC to ensure more players are involved in the sector.
Part from attracting new investments into the sector, the new legislation would also ensure communities proximity to the diamond fields to benefit from the resource by imposing a legal requirement for meaningful corporate social responsibility programmes.
Vast Resources, the London-listed company recently concluded an agreement with Red Mercury, a vehicle owned by Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust that will see it exploiting conglomerate and alluvial diamonds in Chiadzwa.
Under the agreement–Red Mercury—the holder of Heritage Concession will provide a mining licence while Vast will raise funding for exploration and mine development.
Vast Resources will carry out initial due diligence on the concession, a conditions precedent to implement of terms of the agreement for exploration, mining and marketing.
