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From Cletus Mushanawani in Mutare
THE third batch of diamond mining equipment acquired by the Zimbabwe Consolidated Mining Company (Private) Limited from Belarus arrived in Mutare on Saturday en route to Chiadzwa.Eight trucks arrived at Forbes Border Post and had been cleared by afternoon, with a delegation from ZCDC there to assist with the logistics. The first batch of seven dump trucks arrived two weeks ago, and the second, with three dump trucks, arrived on Monday last week.

ZCDC has bought a total of 21 dump trucks, 21 loaders and eight dozers under a $32 million Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe facility for acquisition of sophisticated mining equipment and machinery.

ZCDC chief executive officer Dr Moris Mpofu said in an interview: “The trucks and all equipment will be assembled at our Chiadzwa diamond mines. “The dump truck will be complemented by excavation equipment, which we are importing.

“It is quite a process because we are now moving from contract to own mining which is a bit cheaper. Contract mining is prohibitive in terms of costs. “As we continue to take delivery of new equipment, we expect to increase diamond mining at Chiadzwa as we will be able to move to new portals. When we say new portals we mean we will be opening new areas of mining.

“We are also moving into conglomerate mining, and surely this will result in an increase in the output of the diamonds we will be mining at Chiadzwa.” Chiadzwa’s alluvial resources have already been exploited and kimberlites are more capital intensive to mine and the RBZ has injected $25 million working capital into ZCDC.

Conglomerate mining has started in concessions previously held by Marange Resources, Mbada Diamonds and DMC, and ZCDC will soon move into other areas in Marange and Chimani- mani.

ZCDC was formed after Government removed all diamond mining firms in Marange after realising they were not being truthful in declaring dividends and the precious gems.