Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings – Zambia's government-owned mining company – has placed an ad seeking partners in exploration for diamonds, precious metals, and other mineral resources, the Lusaka Times reports.



The ad said six prospecting licenses were available for a 3,200-square-kilometer area.

Zambia is the largest copper producer in Africa and the metal accounts for some 70% of its overseas income.

The southern African country is not currently a diamond producer, but it is bordered by Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Angola to the west and Tanzania to the east – all of which have diamond resources.

In 2009 – a year still feeling the effects of the global financial crisis – Tanzania produced 181,873 carats of rough diamonds with a total value of $24.8 million. Angola produced 13.8 million carats of rough diamonds with a value of $1.179 billion. In the same year, Botswana produced 17.73 million carats valued at $1.436 billion – and in the first 10 months of 2010, Botswana's diamond industry exported nearly double that amount.

Zimbabwe's diamonds remain under international embargo, but in terms of resources the country could become the world's top diamond producer by 2013, diamond trade experts said this year.