Mugabe accuses De Beers of looting Zim diamonds

Staff Writer | Thursday March 11, 2010 00:00

President Robert Mugabe is quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper last week as fingering De Beers among other multinational firms as looters in the Marange diamond fields by pretending to be carrying out exploration work.

Asked to elaborate, Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, told Mmegi that for 15 years the Zimbabwe government believed De Beers was only prospecting and carrying out tests when the company  was actually mining.

'When the government finally realised this and tried to arrest them, that's when they hurriedly pulled out and claimed the diamonds were not of commercial value,' Charamba said. 'It is not a secret that alluvial diamonds are mined at the surface. It is not like a kimberlite. Why should it take 15 years for such an experienced company to conclude that our diamonds are of no value to them.

'But we cannot not take the issue further because we cannot establish how much of the diamonds have been taken. But the most important thing now is that we now have our mines back.' Meanwhile, De Beers Director of International Relations has described Mugabe's accusations as incredible and fictious. 'We were in the Marange fields from 1993 to 2006,' Andrew Bone told Business Week by phone from London. We only did core sampling.

The deposits we found there did not fit into our portfolio. 'There were also disputes regarding the allocation of a second concession to another mining company, ACR. That's why we pulled out. But the bottom line is that there are ridiculous allegations and there is no evidence of De Beers mining diamonds in that area.' The discovery of alluvial diamonds in 2006 sparked a rush in which multitudes of Zimbabweans descended on the Chiadzwa fields in the eastern part of the country and mined the gems illegally.

Chiadzwa is one of the world's most controversial diamond fields that have generated reports of gross human rights abuses against the illegal miners by soldiers sent to guard the fields after the British firm ACR left.

Human rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds, but the Kimberly Process declined to suspend the country and instead gave Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms in order to comply with the regulations of the diamond industry's worldwide watchdog.

In an attempt towards that end, the government-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) last year partnered with little-known South African firms Grandwell and Core Mining and Minerals which took over mining at the Chiadzwa field.

ZMDC controls some 171 acres (69,000 hectares) of the vast diamond field.