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Diamond trading centres for Chimoio, Nampula as demand rises – Watch
3:29 CAT | 26 Jul 2022
Screen grab: TVM
The government is going to open two diamond trading centres this year in the provinces of Manica and Nampula.
The move comes in response to the growing demand for Mozambican diamonds, as evidenced by the 80 requests for prospecting licences currently lodged with the Mozambican authorities.
Carlos José Elias, executive secretary of the Kimberley Process Management Unit at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy takes stock of the situation.
“At the moment we have 80 applications for prospecting and research licences that are in process at the National Institute of Mines (INAMI), which means that, in the near future, we will have many companies in Mozambique in this area of diamond research as a result of the effort the government has put into becoming a member of the Kimberley Process,” Elias told TVM.
The largest deposits of diamonds in Mozambique are in Gaza, Manica, Tete and Niassa provinces.
There is a diamond trading centre in Maputo already but two more are due to open this year.
“The trading centres are actually export centres. The companies produce, and we have technicians who do the screening to see what has been produced and what is going to be exported,” Elias says.
“The product is taken to the trading centres, where we have technicians from this precious metals and gems chemical processing unit, which represents the Ministry of Mineral Resources, plus technicians from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, together with the police for the protection of natural resources and the Tax Authority. Then, they do the evaluation, after which the minerals are sealed in tamper-proof packaging,” Elias explained.
“This semester, we will inaugurate a provincial trading centre in Chimoio, Manica, and we expect the Nampula trading centre to open by December too,” he went on.
The country currently has 17 authorised diamond prospecting licences.
Being still in the prospecting phase, it is difficult to say what quantities of diamond exist in Mozambique, Elias noted.
The diamonds will be exported in the rough, but Mozambique is considering the possibility of installing cutting facilities here in the longer term.
Watch the TVM report.
Source: TVM
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