THE Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation has taken over management of Sino-Zimbabwe at Chiadzwa and resumed operations after Chinese partners pulled out. Sino-Zimbabwe was a joint venture between ZMDC and some Chinese investors who pulled out in May last year alleging a concession they were allocated had no meaningful diamond resources to operate a viable mine.

Sino-Zimbabwe was among five companies licensed to operate in Chiadzwa, but it laid off its workers mid last year before it closed.

ZMDC chairman Mr Godwills Masimirembwa yesterday confirmed the takeover of Sino-Zimbabwe by the parastatal.

He said ZMDC was convinced that the claim allocated to Sino-Zimbabwe was rich in diamonds.

"The day to day management and operations of Sino-Zimbabwe have been taken over by the ZMDC.

"Right now we are in the process of recruiting personnel. Exploration is also in progress," Mr Masimirembwa said.

"As we have mentioned in the past, we are convinced that the concession is rich in diamonds."

Mr Masimirembwa said Sino-Zimbabwe could have failed because the company was looking for alluvial diamonds.

 "They were looking strictly for alluvial diamonds yet the concession has conglomerates," he said.

"These are diamonds embedded in rocks and mining them requires a lot of capital."

Mr Masimirembwa said ZMDC was in the process of moving equipment on site as it prepares for full scale mining.

ZMDC sent a team to investigate circumstances surrounding the closure and was convinced that it was viable to operate the mine.

Management at Sino-Zimbabwe unsuccessfully tried to persuade Government to allocate the company another claim.

President Mugabe toured Sino-Zimbabwe in June last year and management tried to impress upon him that it was allocated a barren claim.

"We have finished testing the potential of the block (claim). The diamonds are not viable for economic mining. We found that the diamond quality in the area is poor. We did not expect all of them would be industrial," said Mr Grant Rau, Sino-Zim's chief geologist.