Zimbabwe Diamond Centre to Process up to 700 Stones Daily

(IDEX Online News) – The Zimbabwe Diamond Centre (ZDC) has officially unveiled its new machinery, which has been sourced from India, that will allow it to cut anywhere between 100 to 700 stones a day. According to newsday.co.zw, the Centre’s old machinery meant that it could take up to 15 days to polish just one stone.

“The new technology has the capacity to do 700 stones per shift for small stones and 100 for big stones a day. We will be bringing so many sets of machines that per day will be able to polish over 1 000 diamonds,” the news site reported ZDC chairperson Lovemore Kurotwi as saying.

Kurotwi also said the new technology would help Zimbabwe in its attempt to derive as much benefit from its diamonds as possible. “Currently, the country is not getting full value for its diamond by selling diamond in the rough stage. A lot of money can actually be realized by selling fully processed diamonds.

“Currently, Zimbabwe is complaining about the liquidity crunch, but we can only close that gap by creating an environment where money can circulate in the country. If diamonds are marketed in Zimbabwe, mining companies will get their payment for diamonds and if those diamonds come to local companies for value addition, and if we sell fully processed diamonds, that money will remain in the country and this is the only way to improve liquidity in the country,” reported the news site.

The center, which is located in Harare, is scheduled to be operational next month. It will house a range of diamond entities including  miners, diamantaires, cutters and polishers, jewelers, financial institutions and government regulatory authorities, said newsday.co.zw.