Biti wants state to mine alluvial diamonds
HARARE – Zimbabwe would like to have all alluvial diamond mining conducted by the state, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday.
“There is consensus in government that there has to be a new Diamond Act that says alluvial diamond mining in Zimbabwe be conducted by and through the state,” Biti said in a mid-term budget speech.
Alluvial diamonds are diamonds that have been removed from the kimberlite by natural erosion and deposited in new environments such as a river bed, an ocean floor or a shoreline.
Important voices in the international diamond world are calling on the international regulator to certify Zimbabwe’s so-called blood diamonds for export. An important meeting is taking place in the Russian Federation this week where Zimbabwe tries once again to get its controversial rough diamonds certified.
Officials from the Kimberley Process, which was created to end trade in diamonds used to fund conflict and war, are discussing Zimbabwe’s controversial rough stones with members of the World Diamond Council in St. Petersburg.
Before the meeting, Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said Zimbabwe had complied with Kimberley Process requirements, so rough stones from the Marange area in south eastern Zimbabwe should be certified for export.
Mpofu is from the ZANU-PF Party, and he was supported by Finance Minister Tendai Biti, from the Movement for Democratic Change Party. Biti says Zimbabwe’s 16-month-old inclusive government desperately needs revenue from diamonds to revive the country’s ailing economy. He said last week that Zimbabwe’s rough stones from Marange, could not be classified as ‘blood diamonds.’
Biti said the government has received no income from illegal sales of Marange diamonds and certification would provide income and exercise some control of the exploitation of the alluvial diamond fields, which have a relatively short production life.
International Diamond Manufacturers President Moti Ganz said in Moscow the Marange stones should be certified because this would improve Zimbabwean lives. He said without immediate certification of the rough stones the diamond market would be flooded with Zimbabwe stones, which would cause “catastrophe” in the diamond trade during a recession.
Ganz and others estimate the Marange stones could account for a quarter of all the world’s diamonds.
In parliament Tuesday, President Robert Mugabe again said Zimbabwe would sell its Marange stones regardless of the verdict of the Kimberley Process.
Human Rights Watch and the group Partnership Africa Canada say the Kimberley Process monitor responsible for Zimbabwe has ignored gross human-rights abuses in the Marange area. The human-rights groups say the diamond fields have been “militarized” by Mr. Mugabe’s security chiefs.
Several diamond analysts in Israel, which presently chairs the Kimberley Process, say smuggled Zimbabwe diamonds have been sold in India for cutting and polishing. The origin of a cut stone is impossible to establish.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe hopes to achieve inflation of 4.5 percent year-on-year by the end of 2010 despite the recent quickening of the price index, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday.
“Our original target was 5.1 percent. Despite the resurgence of inflation in June 2010, we still hope that we will achieve an annualised inflation of 4.5 percent by the end of the year,” Biti said in a mid-term budget speech to parliament.
Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office is due to release June inflation data on Thursday, but latest available figures show the gauge accelerated to 6.1 percent year-on-year in May from 4.8 percent in April.
Posted by Raymond Mhaka
on July 14, 2010. Filed under Financial News,Main Headline,Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
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