Zimbabwe invited diamond manufacturers from Surat to participate in a series of diamond auctions that will be held during 2014; it is planned to put up a total of 12 million carats for auction, writes the Indian edition of the Times of India (TOI).
Antwerp World Diamond Council (AWDC), which cooperated with the Zimbabwean government on the sale of rough diamonds, plans to sell 12 million carats of diamonds estimated in millions of dollars by December 2014 in Zimbabwe.
In December 2013 and February 2014, Zimbabwe held two diamond auctions in Antwerp, selling respectively 279,723 carats of diamonds worth $ 10.5 million and 959,931 carats for $ 70 million, according to the Ministry of Mining. Now for the first time in history, diamond auctions are planned in Zimbabwe.
Surat is the largest processing center for rough diamonds mined in the Zimbabwean area of ​​Marange. Zimbabwe diamonds are small in size and are almost 55% cheaper than diamonds mined in other countries. According to popular belief, diamond raw materials from Zimbabwe are so small that only cutters from Surat can process it.
Since Surat is the final destination for diamonds from Zimbabwe, traders are eagerly awaiting sales of millions of carats of stones in Zimbabwe. The prospects of supplying Zimbabwe diamonds can not but please Indian small and medium-sized enterprises, which suffer from a shortage of diamond supplies.