(IDEX Online) - Zimbabwe is poised to offer a diamond stockpile of over a million carats for sale as it seeks foreign currency.
It hopes to net up to $100m, according to a report in today's Sunday Mail newspaper.
The Minerals and Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, which has controlled all the country's diamond sales since 1983, says it plans to hold an auction in the near future, after cancelling one as COVID-19 hit in February.
The corporation's managing director Mr Tongai Muzenda said: "We have quite a substantial stockpile to sell. Anytime soon we will be able to sell the diamonds."
He said they'd received a number of inquiries and were looking at the best options.
The country has pinned its hope on exploiting rich and untapped diamond reserves to revive an economy crippled by triple-digit inflation and high unemployment.
The government announced last October that it aimed increase diamond production to 11m carats by 2023 from 3.2m carats in 2018, and earn $12 bn annually from all mining operations.
Pic shows Murowa Mine, Zimbabwe...