Mabhudhu appointed new ZCDC CEO Diamond miner embarks on aggressive turnaround

THE Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC ) board recently appointed Mark Mabhudhu (pictured) as the substantive chief executive officer for the diamond producing entity.

“The board is pleased to announce to all employees the appointment of Mark Mabhudhu as substantive chief executive officer of Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (Pvt) Limited with effect from 21 September 2020. Mabhudhu will be based at head office,” Wellington Pasipamire, ZCDC board chairperson announced in a memo circulated to all ZCDC employees on September 21, 2020.

Mabhudhu was executive director at Vast Resources, a British company listed on the London Stock Exchange with diamond interests in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

A well-known figure in the Zimbabwean diamond industry, Mabhudhu is an experienced metallurgist with over 25 years technical and management experience across the diamond value chain locally and internationally.

He has also worked for both Marange Resources (Pvt) Limited as acting CEO and subsequently appointed to the same role in ZCDC in 2015.

“Following this development, Levi Chiota reverts to acting chief operating officer position.

The board would like to thank Chiota for holding leadership fort for the organisation since the departure of Roberto de Pretto on 28 August 2020,” Pasipamire said.

Chiota was on August 28 appointed acting CEO for a period of three months, taking over from de Pretto, who has been acting CEO since May 16, 2019 following the departure of Morris Mpofu.

Mabhudhu’s appointment means he is the first substantive CEO at the state-owned diamond miner since the departure of Mpofu who had been fingered in corruption allegations.

The state, however, withdrew all charges against Mpofu before plea after it failed to gather enough evidence for prosecution.

“The board welcomes Mark to his new role and request that all employees give him the necessary support as we move forward to turnaround the fortunes of the organisation and stabilise it and as we navigate through these difficult times that were further compounded by effects of Covid-19,” Pasipamire said.

Meanwhile, the government has pledged to revamp and transform the diamond sector and ZCDC , as the country’s largest player, has been earmarked to contribute US$1 billion under the US$12 billion milestone.

The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC ) is set to increase its output this year after a slump in 2019 due to power outages.

Last year, the company failed to move eight million tonnes to the processing centre due to incessant power cuts and fuel shortages.

Its machines, which can move 2 500 tonnes a day, last year spent most of the time idle.

ZCDC production tumbled to 1,6 million carats from 2,8 million. To achieve their target, ZCDC installed a 450 tonnes per hour plant which is set to increase carat production.

Focus now is on the optimisation of the plant to make sure power is there whether from the grid or generators. There are also also plans to install a solar farm to boost power supply.

ZCDC is also targeting about 3,2 million carats this year through procurement of two mobile crushing and recovery plants. The new crushers would increase capacity to about 650 tonnes per hour.

In the absence of reliable power supplies, ZCDC consumes over 4 000 litres of diesel a day.