Power Company Pulls Plug at Diamond Mine

The Murowa Diamond Mine, in Zimbabwe, has reportedly had its power supply cut after failing to pay a USD 4.5m bill.

The Murowa Diamond Mine, in Zimbabwe, has reportedly had its power supply cut after failing to pay a USD 4.5m bill.

Owner and operator RZM Murowa has also failed to pay some of its workers since October, prompting around 300 of its 700 workforce to take strike action.

The mine, in Mazvihwa, south central Zimbabwe, had its power supply switched off last Wednesday (8 January), according to local news outlet Zim Now.

“Power was switched off by ZESA (the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) yesterday,” according to one worker, it said. “So today there is nothing going. No one has explained what’s next.”

Another worker said they’d received a circular saying part of their October and November pay checks arrive on 3 January.

“Now that power has been cut off we don’t know if we will get anything else,” they said.

A source at the mine said debts to ZESA had been mounting and were now USD 4.5m.

Full-scale production at the mine began in 2004. RioZim took over management in 2015, leading to a comprehensive strategic overhaul aimed at revitalizing operations and expanding capacity.

Murowa produced 216,000 carats in the half of 2024, marginally up on the same period in 2023. But revenue and profitability were down.

Source: IDEX

Zimbabwe’s $20bn of “Disappeared” Diamonds

Corruption in Zimbabwe has cost the country at least $20bn in “disappeared” rough diamonds, according to veteran economist and former member of parliament Eddie Cross.

He accuses the late Robert Mugabe, who served as prime minister from 1980 to 1987, of personally helping himself to $1.3bn of diamonds.

“We still suffer from massive leakages of economic output and income,” Cross, 84 (pictured), writes on his website, in a blog entry that pulls no punches and which has been widely reported in Zimbabwe’s media.

“When I was in parliament in 2012, I raised the wholesale theft of diamonds from the newly discovered Marange diamond fields,” he says.

“These covered nearly 100,000 hectares and in that year I estimated that we produced more carats than Botswana.”

Production from the Marange alluvial deposit started in 2006, after De Beers discovered diamond reserves, and continues today.

“It was taken over illegally by the Ministry of Mines and then exploited by six companies, all linked to powerful elements in the government, including the state president,” he writes.

“My personal estimate is that Marange has produced nearly $30bn in raw diamonds since then. A third was probably absorbed in costs but the rest has disappeared.

“Mr Mugabe famously asked where US$15bn had gone since mining had started. He knew the answer to that as I think he personally took $1.3bn.”

He alleges widespread corruption in every sector of government activity.

“It is well known that in certain ministries if you want a decision of any sort, you have to pay for it. I was approached by a senior civil servant for a bribe to sign a letter, I said but surely that is your job.

“I was told ‘do you think we do this sort of thing for nothing?’ I did not pay the bribe and did not get the letter.

He goes on to say: “This scrouge soon also infects the private sector. The statement by the Dubai Gold Exchange that in 2023 they bought nearly 450 tonnes of gold from informal origins in Africa. That is $32bn worth, a third from Zimbabwe. No wonder we are awash in US dollars in cash.”

Source: Idex

Zimbabwe Mine Running out of Diamonds

Murowa mine Zimbabwe

The Murowa mine, in Zimbabwe, reported a 15 per cent drop in its diamond production for 2020 as known deposits begin to run dry.

Owners RioZim said it was exploring sites near the three kimberlites pipes currently being worked in the southern central Midlands Province.


Rough output in the year ending 31 December 2020 from the RioZim associate RZM Murowa Private Limited was 579,000 carats, down from 685,000 carats the previous year.


RioZim chairman Saleem Rashid Beebeejaun said the main reason for the drop in yields was that the mine had been processing low-grade resources from its K2 pipe. High-grade resources at K1 have become depleted.


But firm gold prices helped the minerals and mining parent company RioZim bounce back with a $454m profit in 2020, after a $584m loss in 2020.

Source: John Jeffay IDEX