Government of Zimbabwe reports good results on Marange trial tender

A report issued by the Government of Zimbabwe's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Professor Francis Gudyanga concludes that the trial tender of Marange goods was highly successful. The Antwerp hosted a diamond tender offering rough diamonds from five different diamond-producing companies from the Marange area in Zimbabwe, commissioned by the Government of Zimbabwe and facilitated by First Element, an independent and specialized service-providing company. The tender, attended by 115 potential buyers and the first one held in Antwerp since the European Union lifted the sanctions against the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), is the result of high level meetings of the Zimbabwean officials and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe and Antwerp over the past few months.

Furthermore the report says the philosophy of this first trial tender of Marange goods was to enable the Zimbabwean Government and industry stakeholders to make a thorough assessment of the benefits of selling rough diamonds on the open Antwerp market through a trial tender, alongside the regular tenders that are organized in Zimbabwe. The report states that the total sales value of US$10.7 million is fully consistent with the expectation considering 89% of the goods offered consisted of low quality industrial goods. In general, goods weren't optimally cleaned, sorted and parcels were not ideally composed. In total, this first tender generated US$1.6 million for the Zimbabwean treasury, the designated fifteen percent royalty fee. The report concludes by stating that the trial tender demonstrates the high potential of selling Zimbabwean rough on the open Antwerp market. In addition has provided valuable insight and has resulted in tangible guidelines that will allow the Goverment of Zimbabwe to fully optimize a second, larger tender of Marange goods in the near future.  The next sale is scheduled for 11 – 19 February 2014.

You can download the full report below.