Diamond production in Zimbabwe shot up in the first six months of 2017, reaching 1.1 million carats, according to a statement made by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the country’s parliament and quoted in the local media. The minister said that the huge increase was a result of the capital investment of $ 30 million made by the government in Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), the reports stated.

While the minister was quoted as saying that the output for the entire 2016 was 690,000 cts, other media reports suggested that in 2016, ZCDC had generated $42 million from sale of 961,538 carats. Currently the ZCDC is stockpiling the diamonds it has mined.

ZCDC is the government corporation entrusted with the responsibility for mining in Marange after the government did not renew the licences of overseas companies that were had mining operations in the region.  Chinamasa said that the ongoing reforms have brought a turnaround in the industry, enabling it to shift its focus from alluvial mining to what he described as “full scale conglomerate and kimberlite diamond mining”.

According to the reports, the government funds were utilized through a facility of the Reserve Bank to source mining equipment from Belarus which made the shift to more organized mining possible.

Separate media reports also quoted Masimba Chandavengerwa, Dy GM responsible for Mkting of Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe as telling a small-scale miner's conference in Bulwayo that the government has deployed a technical team to Karoi in Mashonaland West to look for new diamond discoveries in the area.