State Takeover Of Diamond Mines Stalled, Admits Zimbabwe Dy. Minister

The Zimbabwe government’s attempt to bring all the mining in the Marange diamond fields under state control appears to have stalled, with court cases yet to be settled, and the government unable to procure either the necessary mining equipment or the technology and personnel to actually map and quantify the country’s diamond potential.

Deputy Mining Minister Fred Moyo admitted in parliament that the initiative was in a shambles. Asked by Chief Senator Enos Musarurwa during the upper house’s question and answer session if the consolidated diamond firm was now operational, Moyo said the initiative had run into fresh problems. “There are some issues which are a problem in this consolidated company. The first problem is that there are some issues which are subjudice and have to be worked out before full implementation.”

He added, “The second problem we face is sourcing the mining equipment needed to dig out the ore so that we can have enough diamonds to reach our planned target. The third problem is for us to have the necessary equipment and the qualified personnel to be able to quantify the amount of diamonds underground.”

Mining at the Marange fields had been conducted by six private firms �" Marange Resources, Mbada Diamonds, Diamond Mining Corporation, Anjin Investments, Jinan and Gye Nyame Resources �" as well as Kusena/Zimbabwe Diamonds and RERA Diamonds, which were wholly owned by the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation ((ZMDC).

The Deputy Minister’s admission comes shortly after Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa, told reporters at the Kimberley Process Intersessional Meeting in Perth, Australia, that all the legal issues with the ousted private miners had been settled and that the state could now begin mining.

Meanwhile, a Zimbabwe parliamentary committee has also accused First Element, a company with registered offices in Belgium, Botswana, South Africa and Dubai, which was retained by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) to clean and sort the rough from the Marange fields, of undervaluing the diamonds and transfer pricing.

The parliamentary committed said the management of the MMCZ had observed that when auctioning diamonds, First Element would claim to have invited 80 to 100 companies, when in reality there were fewer than five. “On scrutiny, it was discovered that it was just one company with some 20 people passing themselves off as individual companies,” the committee noted. MMCZ management were reported threatened when they flagged the irregularities.

First Element was appointed by Mining Development Secretary Godfrey Gudyanga over the objections of the MMCZ management.

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