Four young members of the Young Miners Foundation (YMF) are undergoing specialized gemstone cutting and processing training in Zambia as the organization seeks to address skills gaps that have limited Zimbabwe’s ability to capture more value from its gemstones, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
The five-week program is being conducted at the Gemstone Processing and Lapidary Training Centre (GPLTC) in Ndola and is sponsored by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), with YMF facilitating the participation of its members.
The participants were selected based on their technical aptitude, commitment to completing the program, and potential to use the skills gained to develop businesses, create employment, and contribute to value addition in Zimbabwe’s gemstone sector.
The training comes as Zimbabwe’s colored-gemstone industry remains largely underdeveloped, with limited capacity for cutting, polishing, grading, and other downstream activities leaving much of the potential value of the country’s stones outside the domestic economy.
That gap is what YMF is seeking to address through the Zambia program, which gives young miners access to specialized equipment and practical techniques that can be applied to gemstone processing when they return home.
Speaking to Mining Zimbabwe, YMF Chief Executive Officer Payne Farai Kupfuwa said the organisation viewed beneficiation as the central objective of the program.
“Through this gemstone cutting and polishing training in Zambia, YMF hopes to close Zimbabwe’s biggest gap in the gemstone value chain: beneficiation,” Kupfuwa said.
“For too long, we have exported raw stones at commodity prices and imported finished jewellery at premium prices. That model exports jobs and imports poverty.”
The potential economic return from developing those capabilities locally is significant, with more of the value generated from gemstones potentially retained through businesses, employment, and foreign-exchange earnings.
Kupfuwa said the difference could be substantial once a rough stone is cut and certified.
“A rough tourmaline or aquamarine exported raw might fetch $10. The same stone, cut and certified, can fetch $200+. Those 20x gains stay in Zimbabwe as wages, businesses, and forex,” he said.
Beyond the value of individual stones, Kupfuwa said developing local expertise could also strengthen Zimbabwe’s position with international buyers.
“The skills gained by participants will directly contribute to Zimbabwe’s gemstone industry by increasing value addition, creating decent jobs for youth and women, and improving our credibility in global markets. When buyers trust our cutting and certification, we get top dollar,” he said.
Those objectives are being pursued through intensive practical training covering several stages of gemstone processing.
The five-week program includes gemology, gemstone identification, cabochon making, tumbling, faceting, bead making, pre-forming, calibration, cutting, and polishing.
Participants are also receiving hands-on training on faceting machines, trim saws, polishing laps, diamond testers, and other gemological equipment.
For Aminah Ndlovu, 22, the program represents a further step in a path that has already taken her from training into the gemstone business.
Ndlovu, a resource person in YMF’s Gemstone and Lapidary Unit and a director at Ruzhowa Lapidary Resources, previously completed a Gemstone Cutting and Polishing course at the Zimbabwe School of Mines in December 2025. The program was also sponsored by MMCZ.
She said the earlier training contributed to the establishment of four lapidary companies, including Ruzhowa.
That experience has given Ndlovu a direct connection to the potential business impact of the skills now being developed in Zambia.
The latest program is being held at GPLTC, a public technical and vocational institution specializing in gemstone processing, giving participants access to equipment and facilities dedicated to the sector.
“The training in Zambia complements Zimbabwe’s efforts to build capacity in gemstones, but it differs mainly in terms of equipment and institutional focus,” Ndlovu said.
She said the specialised nature of the centre was allowing participants to spend more time working directly with industry equipment.
“Because the training is at Gemstone Processing and Lapidary Training Centre (GPLTC), a certified institution focused only on gemstones, we are able to practice daily on the actual equipment used in the industry,” she said.
That hands-on exposure includes bead making, tumbling, and the use of diamond-testing equipment and other lapidary machinery, alongside training in preparing rough stones for cutting and producing finished stones to standard sizes for jewellery settings.
The experience is expected to give the participants skills they can take back into Zimbabwe’s emerging lapidary industry.
Ndlovu plans to share the knowledge gained in Zambia with other young miners and colleagues involved in lapidary businesses, extending the training beyond the four participants.
For YMF, that skills transfer is part of a wider ambition to develop a pool of gemologists, lapidarists, and jewellery designers capable of supporting a stronger domestic gemstone-processing industry.
Kupfuwa said the skills pipeline could eventually support the establishment of a Gemstone Cutting, Processing and Lapidary Centre in Zimbabwe.
The immediate test, however, will be whether the skills acquired in Ndola can be converted into viable businesses and processing capacity when the trainees return home.
The Zambia program gives the four young miners exposure to a specialised gemstone-processing environment, while YMF hopes the knowledge gained will help expand local participation in the stages of the value chain where gemstones acquire greater commercial value.
