Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev has bought 50% the of Grizzly emerald mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. According to a report in bloomberg, quoted by IDEX Online, the operation was renamed Gemcanton Investment Holdings.
Gemcanton is jointly owned by British Virgin Islands-based Frango Finance Ltd. and Wolle Mining Limited. Kombadayedu Kapwanga, MD of Leviev’s Namibian unit, said Leviev used his Israel-based diamond unit to purchase half of the mine.
According to the report, emeralds “have reportedly seen a 10-fold rise in price in the last eight years”. According to Mining Weekly, Zambia produced “74.7 metric tons of emerald and beryl, a less-valuable grade of the stone, in 2016, a 42% increase from 52.8 t in 2015”.
