Zimbabwe government assumes control of diamond sector

All income generated from diamond mining activity in Zimbabwe has been taken over, following a major cash-injection into a state-owned company.

The Zimbabwe Government’s Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, has confirmed that $80m has been injected into Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, claiming that “the diamonds belong to the fiscus” in a time of decline in gem mining operations throughout the country.

The news comes after it was revealed that earnings from diamonds in Zimbabwe between January and May 12 significantly fell to $27m from a high of $51 in the same period during the previous financial year.

Zimbabwe merged all diamond mining companies into the ZCDC in which the state controls half of the shares.

“There’s a new arrangement with ZCDC that since we are now capitalising it, automatically the diamonds belong to the fiscus,” said Chinamasa.

Chinamasa said that “every [diamond] output will come to the fiscus” through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. This would “… ensure that we get maximum realisation” on the proceeds from diamond mining in the country, he said.