HARARE – London-based mining company African Consolidated Resources (ACR) on Thursday warned international diamond traders against buying germs from Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange diamond field, saying they are “stolen”.
Reacting to an announcement by mining firm Mbada Diamonds of an auction – later abandoned — of some 300 000 carats, ARC lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the precious stones the firm wanted to put under the hammer on Thursday were “stolen diamonds”.
Mbada Diamonds is a joint-venture between the government’s Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and little-known South African company Core Mining, formed last year to work the Marange field that is also known as Chiadzwa.
“Those are our diamonds. Anyone buying them must know that they are trading in stolen diamonds. We are placing an advert in the press to that effect,” Samkange said.
The London Stock Exchange-listed company holds right of title to claims on the Marange diamond field that was seized by the Harare government in
October 2006 and allocated to ZMDC.
The government also seized considerable quantities of diamonds from the ARC but was last year ordered by the High Court to return the diamonds to the UK firm. The court also upheld ARC’s right of title to Marange – in a judgment Harare’s contesting.
Thursday’s planned diamond sale was aborted on instruction from the Ministry of Mines which accused Mbada Diamonds of failing to follow proper procedure by calling the auction before relevant government departments including the police had been informed.
In addition, Mines Ministry permanent secretary Thankful Musukutwa told journalists that Mbada had erred by attempting to auction diamonds from
Marange without obtaining certification for the diamonds from the Kimberly Process (KP) which regulates the world diamond trade.
Under a set of measures meant to bring Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond industry in line with KP standards, the watchdog must monitor sales of
diamonds from Marange.
Marange is one of the world’s most controversial diamond fields with reports that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over
committed gross human rights abuses including murder against illegal miners who had descended on the field following the expulsion of ACR.
International rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds.
In November, Zimbabwe escaped a KP ban despite calls for the country to be suspended over abuses in Marange, with the global body giving Harare a June make reforms to comply with its regulations.
The largest diamond mining company in Zimbabwe is Rio Tinto. Other players are Anglo-American and little known River Ranch mine
Zimonline
ACR are wasting their time. But those diamonds are for Zimbabweans. We cannot have mavhet claiming stuff munyika dzisiri dzavo. why did the not start mining a long time ago. Ndezvavo izvo. What we as Zimbabweans want is that money from the sale of these diamonds is used for capital projects. Projects that 50 years from now Zimbabweans will still benefit from. To Hell with ACR. They can shove their threat up the queen’s ass.
I would not be too worried if the money went to say dualising our major roads,
i.e. the Harare-Mutare-Masvingo network to give back to the area. This would be a huge investment and leave an economic legacy for future prosperity of Manyikaland and the rest of the country. But ofcourse this is just a pipe dream as we know the notorious JOC led by Mnangagwa and its other elements are looking to clandestinely benefit from the auctions, especially after the sweet taste of DRC blood diamonds.