RE: news will come whens it ready4 Oct 2019 11:56
Govt cleansing Chiadzwa diamonds’
October 3, 2019 The Scribe Editor 0 Comments
Rudairo Dickson Mapuranga
The calling of foreign firms like De Beers, Alrosa, Anjin and Vast Resources in the diamond mining sector of Zimbabwe is an attempt to clean the diamond sector which was considered bloody by foreign critics, diamond experts have said.
According to the director of Zimbabwe’s Center for Natural Resource Governance and a fierce critic of the government’s mining activities in Chiadzwa, Farai Muguwu, the coming in of Vast Resources and all other firms in the diamond mining industry of Zimbabwe was a way of ensuring that the sector was cleansed from all the bad reputation it has been receiving.
“It might be also the same case of balancing western and eastern interests with the idea of ensuring that the image of Zim gems is cleaned,” Muguwu said.
The government suffered bad publicity around the world over claims of murders at the Chiadzwa diamond fields located in the eastern side of Zimbabwe, Manicaland. This made it difficult for the country to sell its gems across the world.
Recently, the United States released a communiqué, refusing to accept diamonds from Zimbabwe claiming they were being extracted through forced labour.
The government and other local mining watchdogs refuted the claims, with the United States embassy in Zimbabwe telling the State media in Harare that it had relied its claims on hearsay.
Tichafa Mukuhlani, a renowned geologist indicated that the Chiadzwa claims were owned by Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR) and the coming in of Vast which will partner with Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) is the only way to sanitise the disputes of the concessions that have been existing between the government and African Consolidated Resources.
“African Consolidated Resources were the rightful owners of those claims after De Beers had been doing exploration in the area. ACR was booted in favour of Carnadile which was later replaced by Anjin and Mbada because it had no company papers. Vast is the same as ACR but without Andrew Cranswick as director,” Mukuhlani said.
However, according to another geologist Kennedy Mtetwa, the attempt by the government to invite different companies in the diamond mining sector of Zimbabwe is an initiative that is aimed towards earning money that will facilitate in the purchasing of fuel and other commodities that are running short in the country.
“Anjin partnered with the military to take over part of the Chiyadzwa diamonds then legally owned by ACR. Alrosa, if you remember was invited in after De Beers refused to get involved in Chiyadzwa. In short there was desperation to get someone else to come after De Beers refused. De beers knows everything about Chiyadzwa, it was their project. In short, they didn’t put much value to it,” Mtetwa said.
Earlier this year, Zimbabwe introduced the diamond policy which only allowed four companies to mine diamonds in Zimbabwe
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