The Sunday News
Prosper Ndlovu in Victoria Falls
ALL is set for the official opening of the 9th African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) Conference here by President Mnangagwa this morning.
Delegates have started trooping into the venue where preliminary deliberations have highlighted the need for regional member states to harmonise diamond policies and sharing of ideas to realise value from the precious mineral.
The high-level gathering began on Tuesday and is a platform for discussion on rough diamond beneficiation and value addition, especially on the background of 60 percent of world diamonds coming from Africa and yet the continent has limited cutting and polishing services.
Mines and Mining Development Minister, Cde Zhemu Soda, who chairs ADPA on behalf of Zimbabwe has said major challenges such as lack of access to financing and enablers, infrastructure and regulatory bottlenecks have been identified as focus areas for discussion as they impact on value addition.
Zimbabwe is among the prime diamond producing countries in the region with a higher potential to attract more investment in value addition and beneficiation, which would unlock more job opportunities and contribute to the attainment of an upper middle income vision earlier than 2030.
The conference of ministers and experts began with a session on beneficiation and focusing on sharing of information, ideas and strategies on how to realise value from natural diamonds.
There have also been presentations on benchmarking frameworks and industry perspectives and we had various perspectives that have been presented, especially on opportunities.
Most of the common challenges are on financing issues where beneficiation requires a lot of funding, especially for procurement of raw materials and processes involved hence there is a need for working capital in the process of value addition and beatification.
Infrastructure and enablers like electricity are some of the forces that can affect efficient beneficiation and value addition efforts.
Delegates have also spoken loudly about the need for ADPA members to take their place on the world market and guard against the greatest threat of lab diamonds by promoting natural diamonds.
There was a call for diamond producers to make deliberate steps to access e-markets and position themselves correctly to take up emerging opportunities. Diamond producing nations were also challenged to have a coordinated approach and work together in value adding their diamonds and prevent export of unprocessed minerals.
