Diamonds in Zimbabwe

PostBy Avi Paz Group At 25.08.2010

Although alluvial deposits of diamonds were discovered in Zimbabwe in 1903 and the first kimberlite pipe was identified in 1907, Zimbabwe did little with its diamond resources until the 1990s, when a number of mining companies began prospecting: the UK-based Reunion in cooperation with Canada's Argosy Mining Corporation; the De Beers subsidiary Kimberlite Searches; and Rio Tinto.

De Beers owns 75% of the River Ranch Diamond Mine, Zimbabwe's first, which began operating in the early 1990s.  In 2004, Rio Tinto completed construction on an open-pit diamond mine at the Murowa site. Since then, large deposits of diamonds have been discovered in the Marange and Chiadza diamond fields.

Until August 2010, Zimbabwe was prohibited from exporting diamonds due to international concern over human rights violations in the country's diamond mining industry. (See "Conflict Diamonds") In August and September of 2010 the Kimberley Process permitted Zimbabwe to hold two small sales of rough diamonds, provided that KP monitors be allowed ongoing access to inspect human rights conditions in the country's diamond fields.

In January 2011, the KP reached consensus approval on a modified version of the Jerusalem Agreement, which now requires three KP members rather than two to call for monitoring in the diamond fields. The decision, while decried by some NGOs and activists for justice in the diamond industry as caving into pressure from the Zimbabwean government, cleared the way for Zimbabwe to resume exports of its diamonds.