Low grade ores are being blamed for the greatly reduced diamond output at the Murowa mine in Zimbabwe. According to IDEX Online, output at the mine fell 43% in Q3 2021.
Murowa’s operators RZM Murowa, an associate of RioZim, blamed “low-grade ores from the K1 pit after the high-grade K2 pit reached pit life”.
In 2020, production at the mine totaled 568,222 carats – down from 685,000 carats in 2019. However, RioZim did not disclose Q3 carat production in its trading update. It did say that plans to increase the processing capacity “had been progressing more slowly than hoped due to lack of adequate foreign currency.”
