LONDON (Commodity Online): Following a court verdict, the diamond fields in Zimbabwe’s Chiadzwa region have become a source of smuggling for unscrupulous elements.

According to human rights groups, around 2,000 carats of Zimbabwean diamonds are being smuggled out of the country each day from South African mining company Canadile’s plant in Chiadzwa.

This is against the Kimberley Process. The Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development warned that large quantities of Chiadzwa diamonds were finding their way to local and foreign buyers.

Given the militarisation of the diamond fields and continued reports of violence in the area, these illicit movements of diamonds compromise the legitimate international trade in KP-certified diamonds, and are a clear signal that Zimbabwe is no longer able to control its diamond exports.

Company employees have overtaken illegal panners and soldiers in supplying diamonds to local and foreign buyers, who descend on Chiadzwa daily in search of the precious stones. Many of the stones are stolen at the Density Medium Separator, popularly known as The Plant. There are no security cameras on the Density Medium Separator that separates diamonds from the soil.

A British company, African Consolidated Resources plc (ACR), is the legal leaseholder of the Marange diamond fields, now being exploited by Canadile Miners and Mbada Mining (Pvt) Ltd, working in joint ventures with the parastatal, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
The ZMDC is one of the Zanu (PF)-aligned businesses linked to top army generals, and has a complex list of shareholders, which include trusts and South African and Mauritian companies and individuals, among them the Johannesburg company New Reclamation Group.

Commodity Online had earlier reported that the blood diamonds of Chiadzwa may soon become legal ones following a court verdict last month.

Zimbabwe’s High Court had rejected a plea to bar the sale of diamonds from Chiadzwa diamond fields. This means Zimbabwe will be selling the diamonds without the approval of the Kimberley Process.

The British-based mining firm African Consolidated Resources wants the government and its two South African partners barred from selling diamonds from the Chiadzwa diamond fields, which have been plagued by human rights abuses.

ACR wants its original claim to the mines reinstated. But the High Court dismissed the application. It said the event that if the Supreme Court rules in favour of ACR, the company’s losses can be worked out.

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