Diamond Smuggling Cost Zimbabwe Economy $13 Billion, Mugabe Says
- State-owned company to take control of diamond deposits
- Government earned only about $2 billion from the industry
Rough diamonds sit on a display table at the Yakutsk Diamond Trading Enterprise (YaPTA), operated by Alrosa PJSC, in Yakutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016. The world's two biggest diamond miners, De Beers and Alrosa, just sold $1 billion worth of gems and it's making smaller rivals nervous.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergIllicit trade in Zimbabwean diamonds cost the economy more than $13 billion, forcing the state to create a new company that’s taken control of the country’s deposits, President Robert Mugabe said.
The government on Feb. 22 ordered all diamond-mining companies to end operations and vacate their premises in the Marange and Chimanimani areas and announced the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Co. will take over mining. The state has earned about $2 billion from the gems as about $15 billion was generated by the industry, Mugabe said Thursday on state television in the capital, Harare. He didn’t provide a timeframe.