Alrosa sticks to Zim diamond plan
ALROSA, the world’s largest diamond producer by output, says COVID-19 has not altered its exploration in Zimbabwe and the company plans additional concessions this quarter. The Russian company entered into a joint venture with the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) in 2019, forming a local unit in which Alrosa holds 70%.
Under that joint venture, Alrosa has initially targeted diamond prospects in Chimanimani, on claims that were previously held by DTZ-Ozgeo, another Russian joint venture, as well as other greenfield deposits.
Last year, Alrosa cut its production by 22% to 30 million carats as it suspended mining at less profitable sites in response to weak demand, a result of COVID-19.
But, despite this, Alrosa says it is continuing with its exploration plan in Zimbabwe.
The company intends to “accelerate its activities” in Zimbabwe, CEO Sergey Ivanov said Wednesday.
Alrosa already holds 25 prospecting concessions in Zimbabwe, and expects to add another “15 by late February to early March,” he told Bloomberg.
Diamonds taking forever?
Alrosa’s announcement that it was investing in Zimbabwe, back in January 2019, was a major boost for investment-starved Zimbabwe.
But a combination of COVID-19 and bureaucracy has delayed Alrosa’s Zimbabwe exploration.
At one of the targeted concessions, Malipati, a special grant that spans Matabeleland South and Masvingo, moves towards building a diamond washing plant were delayed last year.
On Monday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa met a delegation of executives from the local unit of Alrosa, who, according to industry sources, reportedly raised complaints around red tape in applications for exploration concessions and other authorisations.
At the signing of the joint venture in 2019, ZCDC had said it hoped the Alrosa investment would help it grow output to 10 million carats by 2023.
This ambitious target would place the country among the world’s top five producers, an unlikely comeback for a country whose diamond output fell almost 75% over the past six years.
That target looks even less likely now after ZCDC was last year forced to cut output, suspend gem sales and hold off on new investment.
Alrosa reported sales revenue of US$2,8 billion in 2020.
Apart from Zimbabwe, Alrosa’s only other presence in Africa is in Angola, where it already runs a mine, the Luaxe operation in the north of that country.
According to Ivanov, Alrosa plans to donate the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines to help the two countries roll out vaccines.
“We intend to provide dozens of thousands of vaccines to each of these countries upon their availability for exports”, he said, without detailing the amount of vaccines that will be given.
“Allowing for time needed to produce the vaccine, we expect first shipments to start from the second half of March,” Ivanov added.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa on Tuesday told reporters that Zimbabwe was in talks with Russia, India and China for the purchase of vaccines.
IN Zimbabwe, getting claims settled by funeral policy insurers now seems to be very challenging. Many think insurers give flimsy excuses, but in most cases, the blame lies with policyholders. We have covered many factors leading to claim rejection before, but here are a few more things to do to ensure that you will not be on the wrong side when you claim your funeral policy
Deal with registered companies
Do not put your hard-earned money into unregistered insurers. You may find their doors closed and lose out. If you are not sure, you need to check with the Insurance and Pensions Commission.
They will give you a list of registered and deregistered firms so that you will be guarded accordingly. Unregistered companies are more likely to reject claims than registered ones since the latter have a reputation to safeguard.
Fill the proposal form yourself
Filling the funeral proposal form may seem time consuming and burdensome, but do not let the insurance agent fill it in for you. Do it yourself to avoid wrong information being entered. Agents fill forms fast to meet sales targets, they are only worried about closing a sale.
Provide correct spelling of names
Ideally, you must fill in the proposal form using your dependants’ national identity or birth certificates so as to extract correct information.
If you realise that you supplied wrong information, you can consult your insurer and make amendments in time. But it is very difficult and in most cases impossible to make amendments when claiming.
Be honest and disclose all material facts when completing your proposal form or claim form. Misrepresentations could result in claim rejection and may lead to legal action against you for insurance fraud.
Common reasons claims are rejected includes non or partial disclosures and wrong disclosures of material facts such as age, nature of occupation, hazardous hobbies and pre-existing medical conditions.
Therefore you must avoid this at all costs.
Update nominee information as soon as possible
Nominee is the person who will receive benefits in case you die. When you are single, you may nominate your parents, but once you get married, update the nominee instantly if you want to name your spouse or children. The same applies in case of divorce. You must change as soon as you finalise your divorce papers. Generally, nominated beneficiaries should be those who directly depend on you or those you think will be responsible for your dependants.
Cover all your dependants
Make sure your policy has covered all your dependants. If you left others, visit your insurer and add them in time. Some people have a tendency of waiting until one becomes very sick and that is when they realise that they had not included them.
Insurers normally do not want bed-ridden dependants. Remember, these will have to go under waiting period, which is usually longer than that of your immediate family members.
Get the confirmation of amendment from insurer
This can be a change of a nominee, date of birth for beneficiary, correct spelling of names and others. A lot of times, I have seen people coming to claim for a beneficiary whom the proposer thought was covered, only to be told that deceased was not on cover because the insurer did not get the correspondence from proposer requiring this change.
Inform others about your funeral policy
Let your family members and work colleagues know that you have a funeral policy. A lot of times, I have seen people claiming cash in lieu of services after having struggled to give a decent burial to the deceased without knowing they had a funeral policy.
lFarai Francis Zhara holds an MBA from the National University of Science and Technology and a BCom from Midlands State University. He is a certified client services practitioner with over a decade in the insurance sector. He writes here in his personal capacity. He can be contacted on zharafarai@gmail.com