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Business Reporter

THE Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) is set to establish gemstones buying centres across the country to accelerate the growth of the sectors towards the national target of a US$1 billion industry by 2030.

This comes as Zimbabwe is not realising meaningful earnings from semi-precious and coloured stones with MMCZ indicating that last year Zimbabwe raked in a paltry US$215 560 after a total of 1 386 million kilogrammes were sold through the formal system.

A gemstone is a precious or semi-precious stone, especially one cut, polished, and used in a piece of jewellery.

The value of the gemstones in Zimbabwe is estimated at US$2 billion per annum. This feeds into the Government’s overall policy thrust of growing the mining industry into a US$12 billion economy by 2023 and the broader vision of transforming Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income country by 2030.

It has been reported that the gemstones discovered in some parts of the country such as Karoi and Hurungwe were being extracted without going through the normal processes that benefit the country at large.

Speaking at the inaugural Gemstones Conference organised by the Zimbabwe School of Mines in Harare last week, MMCZ sales executive Mrs Gay Zindere said her organisation would be establishing the gemstones buying centres, which MMCZ shall regulate together with other relevant stakeholders like the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and law enforcement agents.

“Our vision is to turnaround the gemstones sector into a US$1 billion industry by 2030.

“This starts by creating reliable sources for gemstones and the development of convenient trading centres in gemstone producing regions, where miners link up with gemstone processors.

“In the end, we hope to see more cutting and polishing centres for gemstones, research hubs in tertiary institutions and technologies in cutting and polishing of coloured gemstones,” she said.

Semi-precious and coloured stones such as aventurine, beryl, talc, antimony, aquamarine, and amethyst are largely used for jewellery manufacturing and decorative purposes.

Mrs Zindere said MMCZ and appointed sub-agents would be buying the gemstones to curb leakages of semi-precious and coloured stones while assisting the miners with cash-flows. She said mechanisms were in place for unregistered miners to sell gemstones directly to MMCZ and its sub-agents.

“MMCZ teams shall be going around gemstone mining areas purchasing gemstones from miners. Miners are also free to come directly to MMCZ offices,” said Mrs Zindere.

The MMCZ official said gemstone mining in Zimbabwe was dominated by small-scale artisanal miners, resulting in inconsistent supplies. 

Thus it was not viable for MMCZ to consign small parcels and it was also difficult to make product guarantees due to inconsistent supply.

“The miners sell gemstones to informal traders as they do not have access to mining licenses,  export permits and other export documentation,” she said.