Power crisis hits diamond output

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ZIMBABWE’S diamond production declined by 22,1 percent to 1,03 million carats in the third quarter of 2023 as load shedding disrupted mining activities, a new report shows.
Zimbabwe has over the years experienced severe power shortages due to insufficient local generation and Zesa’s inability to import the deficit, which the state utility company attributes to an uneconomical tariff structure and defaults.
“Diamond potential was adversely affected by frequent power outages that resulted in loss of production time at some of the mining houses,” the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in a recently published report.
One of the country’s major diamond mines, Murowa Diamond Mine, however, recorded a 12 percent decline in production during the quarter owing to machine breakdowns.