More than 71 000 carats of diamonds have not been sold and stakeholders blame it on the government imposed block on export of a large consignment of diamonds
The drop in sells has affected the country largest miner Petra Diamond, which has reported a drop in revenues by 1 percent.
The ban was instated following last year’s parliamentary committee inquiry into the diamond sector. The investigation revealed signs of under-valuation of export diamonds to evade royalty payments to the government.
The government moved in and placed the ban on export of diamonds from the Petra owned Williamson mine. The Williamson mine is 75% by Petra and 25% by GoT.
Tanzania’s only significant diamond producer, has published it Trading Update for the Six Months ended 31 December 2017, showing revenues down 1% to USD 225.2 million (H1 FY 2017: US$228.5 million).
The company explains that this is mainly due to Williamson’s diamond mine in northwest Tanzania first parcel (71,654.45 carats) not being sold during the period, at it remains blocked for export by the Government of Tanzania (GoT).
As a result, the parcel of diamonds from the Williamson mine had been blocked from export. So now sells have dropped as has revenue but the government, which owns a quarter of the Williamson mine has kept the ban in place.
Petra, which owns 75% of the mine continues to engage with the government requesting the authorities to release the blocked consignment.
Africa produces 50% of the world’s diamonds by volume and 58% by value. In 2015, Tanzania was the 10th largest diamond producer in Africa after Botswana (17.3m ca), Angola (7.1m ca), South Africa (6m ca), the Democratic Republic of Congo (3.15m ca), Namibia (1.92m ca), Sierra Leone (0.5m ca), Zimbabwe (0.5m ca), Lesotho (0.35m ca) and Ghana (0.24m ca).
