RZ Murowa Holdings Ltd Joins Diamond Producers Association

(IDEX Online) – RZ Murowa Holdings Ltd., the majority owner and operator of Murowa Diamonds Private Ltd., joined the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) as of 1 July.

Murowa Diamonds operates the Murowa mine in Zimbabwe, which was purchased from Rio Tinto in 2015 and expanded significantly under its new leadership. Manit M. Shah, Chief Operating Officer of Murowa Diamonds, will join the Board of Directors of the DPA in September. Murowa Diamonds is the eighth miner to join the DPA.

Jean-Marc Lieberherr, CEO of the DPA, said, “We are delighted to welcome RZ Murowa to the DPA and Manit to our Board of Directors. The DPA will continue to play a vitally important role in the future of the diamond industry and broadening our representation and geographic reach will help ensure we maximize the positive impact we can have for the sector as a whole. We look forward to working closely with Manit and his colleagues at RZ Murowa.”

Manit M. Shah, Chief Operating Officer at Murowa Diamonds, said, “Joining the DPA is an important milestone in the life of RZ Murowa Holdings Ltd. and a recognition of the work we are doing to operate our assets responsibly and sustainably. I am very pleased to join such a distinguished Board of Directors and will do my best to contribute to the essential work the DPA is doing for our industry.”

RZM is the majority owner and operator of Murowa Diamond Mines in Zimbabwe. Murowa was owned by RioTinto until July 2015.

Under the new leadership, Murowa went through a strategic overhaul exercise later that year which resulted in a radical change in its business by steering it to a new life of mine plan, new approach to mining and a massive brownfield expansion of the plant. Having produced 255,000 carats in 2015, Murowa today produces about 1,200,000 carats of predominantly white gem quality diamonds.

RZM is currently pursuing a mix of an organic and in-organic growth strategy to grow its production to over 5 million carats per annum by 2022, the firm said.