Diamond Giant Alrosa is coming back to Zimbabwe

Alrosa PJSC, one of the world’s top diamond miners, is returning to Zimbabwe after a more than two-year break as it expands outside Russia.

The company will develop new mining operations in the country with the support of the government, Alrosa said Monday as Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa visited Moscow. The Russian producer opened an office in Zimbabwe last month, Chief Executive Officer Sergey Ivanov said at a press conference.

Mnangagwa, who became president in 2017, sees diamonds as a key way to help revive Zimbabwe’s mining industry, which suffered years of decline under his predecessor Robert Mugabe. The government is considering waiving a rule that prevents foreign investors holding controlling stakes in its diamond mines.

“We also seek to support Zimbabwe in the development of its diamond-mining industry in line with industry’s best practices,” Ivanov said in a statement. Geologists and mining engineers from Alrosa will arrive in Zimbabwe in the next month to start operations, it said.

Despite the country’s diamond riches, no major producers operate there. Rio Tinto Group sold its stake in a project in 2015 and gem giant De Beers quit the country more than a decade ago. Alrosa stopped working in the nation in 2016, a few years after first studying assets there.