Zim’s Mbada Diamonds to ‘invest heavily’ in new kimberlite deposits

Mbada Diamonds said it has plans to invest hundreds of millions towards exploiting new kimberlite deposits.
Company chairperson Robert Mhlanga was quoted as saying by Zimbabwe Independent that Mbada had carried out exploration work for kimberlitic mining and was satisfied the resource could be mined viably starting early this year.
“As a corporate we are geared to expedite all our mining activities because we are aware of the national expectation. To that end we will ensure that next year Zimbabwe ushers in kimberlitic mining,” he said.
Mhlanga said the new venture was part of a broad expansion programme expected to see the diamond miner purchasing a new processing plant.
“There are, however, a lot of factors which will come into play in the expansion process. As we said earlier, even in the earlier stages of our operations, we were talking of investments around tens of millions of US dollars,” he said.
“We then have to look at investing amounts which will be in hundreds of millions of dollars as we expand and grow bigger and as operations become more complex.”
He said exploration work showed diamonds were in abundance across the Eastern Highlands.
Mhlanga dismissed recent reports, which suggested that alluvial diamonds were now depleted in the Marange area.
“A lot of geological activity has taken place, we have managed to, as a corporate, drill tens of kilometres of geological drilling work and occurrences are still there so we wish to re-assure the nation that the diamonds are there,” he said.
“They may differ in terms of frequency, quantity and quality of occurrence, but we are a diamond country and we will be a diamond country for a long time to come.”
Some miners in Marange said last month that their alluvial deposits were fast running out and casked the government for new concessions, while they raise funds to invest in new technology for conglomerate diamond mining.
Apart from Mbada, other diamond mining companies operating in Marange were Anjin Investments, Diamond Mining Company, Gye Nyame, Jinan Mining Private Ltd, Kusena and Marange Resources.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished