A senior Zimbabwean government official speaking on condition that his name was not published said on Monday once the KP board reads the report it will make its own assessment and recommendations.
“Mr Chikane submitted the report to the KP board and we are now just waiting for feedback on what the board has to say,” the official said. “The report we think was favourable to us, and we do not see any reason why we should not be able to sell. Once we get the greenlight we should be able to sell.”
The report, prepared last month after the KP sent diamond monitor Chikane to assess operations at Marange (also known as Chiadzwa) where Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners were last year licenced by the government to mine diamonds, indicates that Zimbabwe has in stock 2.767m carats of Marange diamonds awaiting regulatory approval for export.
Harare officials, who spoke to ZimOnline about three weeks ago, indicated they were expecting Chikane back in Zimbabwe either by end of last month or first week of April to formally grant Mbada and Canadile permission to sell diamonds from Marange.
Chikane is yet to return to Harare.
Mbada and Canadile are two joint venture firms formed by state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and some South African investors to exploit the Marange deposits.
But Zimbabwe cannot trade diamonds from Marange until the KP inspects the stones and certifies that they were obtained in line with the world diamond watchdog’s standards.
The requirement is part of measures to end human rights abuses and other illegal activities at Marange where Zimbabwe’s army is accused of committing rights violations and diamond smuggling.
Currently, the KP board is chaired by Israel which took over from Namibia.
According to the report by Chikane, between October 2006 and February 2010, 4.401 million carats of diamonds were produced at the mine, while 1.634 million carats were sold, with the remainder held in stock.
The report indicated that production was split between the government-owned Marange Resources, Mbada, Canadile and African Consolidated Resources (ACR), a London-based company that is currently involved in a legal dispute regarding the Marange claims.
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 the field in October 2006 from ACR that owned the deposits committed gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the field.
Human rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds but last November, the country escaped a KP ban with the global body giving Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to comply with its regulations. – ZimOnline
