Plant breakdowns drag down Murowa’s Diamond output

Zimbabwe’s Murowa Diamond Mine recorded a 12 percent decline in production for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023 owing to machine breakdowns.

In recent years, Murowa Diamonds has invested in modernising its operations and increasing production.

This has led to an increase in the volume of diamonds produced and improved efficiency in the mining process.

“The business unit experienced plant break downs, mainly on the heavy mobile equipment, which negatively affected plant throughput resulting in a slump in diamond production,” its parent company, RioZim, said in a statement to shareholders.

“100 000 carats were produced in the third quarter of 2023, a 12 percent reduction from 130 000 carats produced in the same period in 2022. The mine’s key focus remains to stabilise its support equipment to enable consistent processing of high volumes as per the new 500 tonnes per hour plant design.”

The country has vast diamond reserves, with estimates suggesting that it has over 800 million carats of diamonds.

RioZim is currently the 27th most valuable stock on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, with a market capitalisation of $99,9 billion, which makes up about 0.667 percent of ZSE equity market.

The counter closed its last trading day at $818.36 per share.

It began the year with a share price of $140.10 and has since gained 484 percent on that price valuation, ranking it 32nd on the ZSE in terms of year-to-date performance.-ebusinessweekly