President Robert Mugabe’s administration in 2006 seized mining claims from the British registered Africa Consolidated Resources accusing the firm of illegal mining in the country.
After years of uncontrolled mining and smuggling of diamonds, the government last year gave the claims two companies that have partnered the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation to start commercial mining.
ACR had approached the High Court seeking an interim order interdicting the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, ZMDC and the two companies from selling the precious stones from the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
The company argued that it still owns the claims from which the diamonds are being mined. But in his ruling, Justice Bharat Patel said ACR had failed to satisfy the requirements of urgency as provided by the High Court.
He said the sale of the diamonds would not prejudice the company as they can be compensated for the losses if they win the appeal. However, Zimbabwe may not be able to start selling the diamonds immediately because it still has to satisfy requirements of the Kimberley Process (KP) certification scheme.
The KP monitor, Mr Abbey Chikane of South Africa who carried a fact finding mission in March, has raised concern about the involvement of too many security agencies in the diamond sector. According to his report, Zimbabwe has produced 4.4 million carats between October 2006 and February 2010.
Of this, 1.6 million carats have been sold and 2.77 million are being held in stocks partly due to the fight for the control of the claims and the failure to meet KP standards.
Source: Allafrica
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