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In June 2010 the monitor reported that the government of Zimbabwe and private investors had satisfied the minimum requirements.Įarlier, in April of the same year ACR had been dealt a bodily harm as the High Court of Zimbabwe ruled that the government could sell diamonds from Marange while dismissing its urgent application to stop diamond sales from the disputed fields.
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Zimbabwe denied these claims but it was not enough to stop the Kimberley Process from suspending exports of the gems in November 2009.Ī KP monitor, Abbey Chikane was then appointed to see if Zimbabwe was complying with the watchdog’s minimum requirements for trade in rough diamonds. International pressure groups also claimed that the Zimbabwean security officials had committed human rights abuses in the fields and there was also rampant smuggling. Others alleged that a lot of leaders of the Zanu PF party were involved in trading and they had their own diggers and traders. Some media reports suggested that the army carried out mining activities using local villagers for forced labour. Two years later, the government unleashed a military operation to drive informal miners off the claims and restore State control over the fields.
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The miners initially sold their diamonds to the government, but a black market rapidly developed, offering better prices. This was despite ACR winning a court case allowing them to continue mining.Ī diamond rush started in September 2006 and by mid-December the same year, around 10 000 illegal artisanal miners were working small plots at Marange. However, the company’s bid to have a Joint Venture with the State was rejected by the Ministry of Mines and ACR was forced out of the claims, which were then taken over by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. It had concluded that the deposits were not in line with the firm’s other activities elsewhere across the continent.ĭe Beers’ exploration rights were then taken up by British-registered African Consolidated Resources in June 2006.
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Zimbabwe only had two kimberlite mines - Rio Tinto’s Murowa Diamonds, in the central part of the country and Rani Investment’s River Ranch, which is in Beitbridge, a border town between Zimbabwe and South Africa.ĭe Beers held an Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) over Marange through its subsidiary Kimberlitic Searches in the early 1990s but left the country in 2006 when its EPO expired. Nothing much was known about diamond mining in Zimbabwe until recently, as was the case with its neighbours, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. He was, however, disenchanted that the reserves in then Rhodesia did not match his expectations. Rhodes had already made a huge fortune through gold and diamond mining in South Africa, and he now aimed to extend his riches. This became Rhodesia, a country named after him. The mining of diamonds in Zimbabwe dates back as far as the mid 19th century and this was a reason why Cecil John Rhodes sought to acquire territory in the land to the north of the Limpopo, South Africa. Interestingly, I almost missed the birth of my first child, as my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Jaiden Mateo Nyaungwa, three days after my return from Zimbabwe.ĭear reader, I hope you can tolerate my excitement, but be assured that this article is not about babies but diamonds. I wrote this article some few days after a trip to Zimbabwe, as Rough&Polished seeks to take a closer look at the diamond operations in the southern African country.