The Zimbabwe government has revealed plans to pump US$50mn into the Marange fields of Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC)
DMC project manager Ramzi Malik told Businessdigest his company had so far invested US$40mn since it started operations last year.
The new US$50mn funding, he said, would be channelled towards capital equipment to help increase production threefold.
Malik remarked that DMC has a capacity to produce 7,200 carats a day, worth about US$300,000.
“We are currently producing 50,000 tonnes per month. With the modifications and updates we are projecting, we will be able to do an average of hopefully 15,000 tonnes per month, which will give us an average of hopefully 150,000 to 200,000 carats per month,” Malik added.
DMC has been producing about 600,000 tonnes of ore a year and this would go up to 2.4mn tonnes upon completion of the expansion exercise.
The increased production will be in line with Zimbabwe’s plans to fully utilise the potential of its Marange diamond fields, which accounts for 25 per cent of global diamond deposits.
