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Zambia establishes scheme to ease marketing of emeralds

Xinhua, April 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Zambia's main emerald producer has established a new purchasing scheme which will afford small scale miners market their green gems and avoid being duped by unscrupulous buyers, a statement emailed to Xinhua on Friday said.

Kagem Mining Limited has established a buying center in Kitwe city on the Copperbelt Province in which it will be helping small scale miners market their emeralds and other precious stones.

According to the statement, the new buying center will operate on a "willing seller-willing buyer" basis and will provide a point at which small scale miners could take their green stones to be appraised by professionals.

"If a price is agreed then the gemstones will be sent to Kagem' s existing processing facility where they will be generally processed, washed, chipped, cobbed, cleaned, graded and sorted in accordance with the company's proprietary grading systems -- a system that has clearly added value to the emeralds that they have produced over the past few years," the statement said.

"Kagem will then aggregate the graded gems with other purchased material in order to create parcels of meaningful -- and more valuable size for onward sale at Kagem's well-documented and highly transparent auctions," it added.

William Nyirenda, the company's chairperson said the initiative was a transformative development because it provides immediate access to fair market prices for small scale miners and other emerald sellers who are usually duped by unscrupulous buyers.

"Moreover, government will be further assured that a greater proportion of Zambian emeralds will see royalties and taxes accrue at full value, all via a mechanism that is transparent and fully auditable," he said.

Deputy Minister of Mines, Energy and Water Development Richard Musukwa, who launched the facility, said the development was an important milestone in a move towards creating a market in which small-scale miners were able to achieve highly competitive prices.

Small-scale emerald miners now have the opportunity to sell their emeralds at highly competitive market prices and with the added comfort of knowing that the entire process will be done in a fully transparent and legitimate way," he added.

Kagem, which is 75 percent owned by London-listed Gemfields Plc with the other 25 percent owned by the Zambian government, intends to use its marketing, sizeable investments and in-depth understating of the global markets to help small-scale miners get value for their produce. Endi