Anjin Investment, which is one of the four firms operating in the controversial Marange diamond fields, in Zimbabwe said it is producing about 3000 carats a day.
The company secretary Charles Tarumbwa was quoted by The Herald newspaper as saying during a field tour by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy that this had dropped from the previous 10,000 carats a day.
He attributed the drop in diamond output to the fact that the company was now mining underground, which required heavy earth moving equipment.
Tarumbwa said the mining techniques used were also now time consuming.
Anjin was said to be a mining venture between China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
However, some analysts said that the ownership of Anjin was shrouded in secrecy.
The joint venture began mining diamonds in the Marange fields in July 2010, but received permission from the Kimberley Process to export its rough diamonds late last year.
The company reportedly had a stockpile of about 3 million carats.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
