Partnership Africa Canada noted that De Beers managed to secure an Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) for parts of Marange diamond fields in the early 1990s.
It went on to conduct preliminary samples but allegedly found that the claim was neither viable nor in line with its practice to avoid alluvial deposits.
So when its EPO lapsed, the African Consolidated Resources (ACR) filed claim in March 2006 and it was granted.
However, three months later thousands of artisanal miners invaded the diamond fields.
The then mines minister Amos Midzi evicted ACR in October 2006 and awarded mining and exploration rights to the Zimbabwe Mineral Development Corporation (ZMDC).
A crackdown on the illegal miners by state security personnel followed in 2008 as Harare sought to restore order.
News reports claimed that 200 people died in the process, but Harare denied the claims.
However, this did not stop the Kimberley Process to suspend the trading of Marange diamonds in 2009.
Zimbabwe agreed to a joint work plan (JWP), which was meant to bring the country back into KP compliance.
Two years later, a KP plenary held in Kinshasa, but boycotted by the civil society affiliated to the diamond watchdog, decided to lift the export restrictions on Mbada and Marange Resources (then Canadile).
However, the United States and the European Union maintained sanctions on Marange diamonds.
Hope
Then mines minister, Obert Mpofu said after the lifting of the KP embargo that Zimbabwe would earn over $2 billion from diamond sales.
“We are going to unleash our worthiness to the world. Zimbabwe won’t be begging to anyone,” Mpofu said.
"Our current diamond production is estimated by volume, to be in excess of 25 percent of the world production, and going by the values realised to date per carat, Zimbabwe is set to earn in excess of $2 billion annually in gross revenues."
Centre for Research and Development director Farai Maguwu told Rough&Polished at the time that that he agreed with Mpofu that Zimbabwe may be sitting on over 25 percent of the known diamond deposits in the world.
He also said that independent assessments had put the value of the Marange deposit at $800 billion.
“[The] assessments were realistic based on current mining operations in Marange and in view of continued discoveries in the region,” he said.
“Now that diamonds have also been found in Bikita and in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe may be sitting on over 25 percent of the known diamond deposits in the world.”
Some unnamed geologists cited by a local Member of Parliament, Eddie Cross, who claimed to have done a thorough research on Marange, reported that the fields contained between 2 and 7 billion carats of raw diamonds.
There was no doubt that the alleged value of Marange diamond fields, coupled with Mpofu’s statement brought hope to many who viewed the gems as a panacea to end the country’s economic misfortunes.
One could not accuse Zimbabweans of being delusional, as the economy of its neighbor, Botswana, was and is still anchored on diamonds.
Dashed hopes
Despite the lifting of the KP embargo and selling of diamonds to the Far East, albeit, secretly to elude the U.S and EU sanctions, Zimbabweans became agitated as the economy failed to take-off.
The EU also lifted sanctions on Marange diamonds towards the end of last year, allowing miners to market their stones in Antwerp.
However, that development was greeted by sad news that the quality and quantity of diamonds mined in Marange had been on the “decline” since 2012.
“Because there is now insignificant diamonds in the alluvial ore, the little that is found is of poor quality than before,” a local weekly, The Financial Gazette claimed.
“While there is hope that economic grade diamond deposits exist underground, the companies operating in [Marange] need equipment to get to the gems, which is costly.”
When the new mines minister Walter Chidhakwa toured Marange diamond fields late last year, he was also told by miners that alluvial deposits were fast running out on the claims that were allocated to them by government.
The miners said they were finding it difficult and expensive to extract deep conglomerate gems.
“Currently, we are exploiting low grade material compared to when we started. We have deep-seated conglomerate making it difficult to extract,” said Mbada Diamonds chief operations officer Tendai Kadyamusuma.
Anjin director Munyaradzi Machacha also said that the company was currently operating at below break-even point.
“Our ore is much deeper to depths of about 40 metres and some of the areas we have had to abandon mining because it was no longer commercially viable,” he said.
The diamond company said at the time that about 950 workers out of about 1 800 people had been sent home, while about 190 of the remaining 845 workers still face the chop.
Their warnings came true recently, as media reports indicated that the Chinese diamond mining companies, Anjin and Jinan were planning to lay-off over 400 employees from their alluvial diamond operations in Marange.
Anjin had retrenched more than half of its workforce since it started operations in Marange, Zimbabwe, four years ago.
“Anjin and Jinan are going to stop more than 400 workers by 4 July and they have already been given termination notices which said there was no longer diamond (sic),” Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (Zidawu) director Cosmas Sunguro was quoted as saying by The Daily News.
Getting rid of ‘useless’ miners
The Zimbabwean government said it was planning to streamline operations in Marange by the end of the year to improve transparency and revenue inflows.
Diamond miners in Marange had been accused of failing to remit diamond revenue to the Treasury.
Zimbabwean Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said last November that the Treasury had not received proceeds from diamond revenue in the nine months to September 2013.
The government had targeted to receive $40 million from diamond sales during the period under review.
Chinamasa’s predecessor, Tendai Biti was forced to cut Zimbabwe’s budget in 2012 to $3.4 billion from $4 billion after receiving $41 million from $600 million that he expected from diamond sales.
President Robert Mugabe indicated earlier in the year that he would want to see one or two mining firms operating in Marange to improve transparency.
Whether this move would effectively improve revenue inflows remains to be seen, amid concerns that the miners would have to dig deeper.
However, it was also believed that there are some alluvial deposits that are yet to be mined in Marange.
Whatever the case, one issue that most Zimbabweans can agree on, for now, was that diamonds had been a huge disappointment, as only a few had allegedly amassed massive wealth at the expense of the majority teeming in abject poverty.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
