Tanzania registered a record diamond export in 2022, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) announced this week.
According to the bank, $63.1 million was generated from the sector last year, a significant increase in the African nation’s diamond exports since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
Similarly, the BoT said that Tanzania’s diamond exports by November 2022 were seven time higher than those of the same period of 2021, when the country’s received about $8.4 million in diamond export revenue.
This record high was said to have been achieved mainly thanks to Williamson Diamond Limited (WDL), Tanzania’s top diamond producer, which had the largest share in the total production in 2022.
WDL is jointly owned by the British mining group Petra Diamonds, which holds 75 percent of the stakes, and the government of Tanzania, which owns the remainder 25 percent.
Williamson mine, located on the 146-hectare Mwadui Kimberlite Pipe, is considered one of the world’s biggest economic kimberlites. Production at the open pit was temporarily halted on November 7, 2022, after one of the operator’s tailing storage facilities was “breached”, causing flooding in nearby areas.
At least 115 people in the neighboring village of Ngw’wanholo were reported to have been affected by the flooding of muddy waters from the storage dam.
Operations at the mine are expected to be resumed in 2024, according to an official statement by Petra Diamonds.