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Antwerp starts selling Marange diamonds

News
MARANGE diamonds will go under auction starting today at the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

MARANGE diamonds will go under auction starting today at the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) as the country aims to get better fortunes following insights gained from the first sale in December.

Business Reporter

The tender will run from February 12 to 21 including weekends at the Antwerp Diamond Tender Facility.

“It is with great pleasure that First Element invites you to attend the second Run of Mine tender of the Zimbabwe productions in Antwerp, Belgium. The tender will be substantially bigger than the previous sale held in December 2013,” organisers said last week.

Diamonds on sale will be from Diamond Mining Company, Jinan Investments, Anjin Investments, Marange Resources, DTZ and Mbada Diamonds.

The goods that were offered in the December trial tender included rough diamonds from Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company, Anjin Investments, Jinan and Kusena Diamonds, totalling 279 723 carats. The trial tender achieved total sales value of $10,7 million.

Treasury got $1,6 million, being the 15% in royalty fees. The trial tender was attended by 115 clients compared to the 10 to 15 companies that are present at regular tenders in Zimbabwe.

The sale of Marange diamonds in Antwerp followed the removal of European Union sanctions on the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and a culmination of high-level meetings between Zimbabwean officials and AWDC both in Harare and Antwerp.

Marange diamonds have courted controversy with little or no remittances to Treasury despite the producers selling the diamonds.

In the 11 months to November, no money was remitted to Treasury as dividends against a target of $61 million.

The Ministry of Mines recently dissolved some boards of mine producers where government is a shareholder and suspended executives to facilitate an audit on their operations.

The move is part of reforms instituted by government to get maximum proceeds from the sale of diamonds.