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RAPAPORT... Equity Communications released its second annual diamond report for Zimbabwe and concluded that rough production surged 1,000 percent in three years to 11.1 million carats in 2011 and projected production to reach 14.5 million carats by 2014. The group also anticipated that the value of Zimbabwe's production would reach $1.7 billion by 2014. According to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme's statistics, however, Zimbabwe produced 8.5 million carats and exported 7.8 million carats in 2011, with the value of production at $476 million. The consulting group concluded that Marange-based diamond miner Anjin would be producing 10 percent of global rough output by 2018 at which time Zimbabwe would be the world's second-largest diamond producing nation. Meanwhile, difficult operating conditions and financing requirements will prevent any new mines from coming online for the foreseeable future in Zimbabwe, according to the report's author, Tinashe Takafuma. Equity Communications was established in 2004 and defines itself as an information provider specializing in Zimbabwe's economy.
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