(via All Africa)

“At the recent international auction, we have been selling at an average of $143 per carat, but that came down to $70 per carat at our local tender last week.

“The problem is they (the buyers) knew our goods were sequestrated and that we are desperate to sell. It’s not a good environment to operate under such circumstances.”

It’s been really interesting to watch the progression of the Marange diamond tenders over the last year. Originally they were getting low prices because the stones from Marange are generally covered with an iron-lava coating and therefore command a lower price (a stone could be a ‘D’ or it could be a ‘Z’… you don’t know while examining such a parcel). Then they wizened up and started removing the iron coating before sale, resulting in higher prices. The Mugabes then cozied up to the Dubai Diamond exchange and ran a ‘test’ auction at the DDE … which took over a month to receive payment for. Recently, a parcel of Zim diamonds were held up in Antwerp under court order (which was later lifted and the diamonds released).

Basically, Zim can’t catch a break. It was therefore also interesting, after all the events leading up to this point and the diamonds potentially running out, to read this:

“[The diamond industry] is an industry that can turn around the country if we manage it properly. The direction that the Minister is taking to consolidate mining companies is very good.” — Marange Resources acting CEO Mark Mabhudhu