20101206
SW Radio

A Harare court has been approached to prevent the government's mining corporation from selling Chiadzwa diamonds, mined controversially by the Canadile mining group.

Canadile has been at the centre of corruption allegations that are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg of illegalities in Zimbabwe's diamond industry. The company was a joint venture between the state owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and the South African Core Mining group. But the ZMDC now has 100% control, after Core Mining was blacklisted over claims that it acquired its Chiadzwa mining concession under fraudulent terms.

But Core Mining is now fighting back and has made an urgent court bid in an attempt to stop the sale of all diamonds mined by Canadile. Core Mining said in an open letter that the ZMDC, "made a series of unilateral moves by taking over the effective running of the Canadile mining operations, excluding Canadile management from daily operations and control, blocking access of Core Mining shareholders to the country and by appropriating the entire diamond stock of Canadile Miners."

The Johannesburg-based company said that it received repeated evidence that prospective diamond buyers have been approached with specific offers for Canadile diamonds. This is despite no clear agreement on Zimbabwe's trade future, with the trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), still discussing whether or not to allow full Zimbabwean diamond exports. Zimbabwe was barred from international trade because of human rights abuses at Chiadzwa.

The Mines Ministry insists that these abuses have stopped and have been demanding that the KP gives it the green light to sell the stones. But there are ongoing reports of forced labour and widespread smuggling at Chiadzwa, and the KP has expressed doubt about allowing the stones back into legal trade. The Mines Ministry in return has threatened to sell the stones without KP approval, and last month an auction was held, in direct contravention of the KP.

Core Mining has now issued "a formal warning to all relevant parties in the diamond sector to exercise maximum caution on the provenance of (Chiadzwa) diamonds, as Core Mining will exercise its full rights by any means possible on any Canadile Miners' diamonds commercialized or misappropriated at this specific juncture."

Six ZMDC and Canadile executives were arrested in November for allegedly making false investment claims to obtain their diamond mining license. It is understood that the attack on Canadile is aimed at letting the government take full control on the diamonds, with top ZANU PF officials being implicated as the leaders of the plunder of Chiadzwa.