Government grabs mine from British listed mining company
By Lance Guma
08 December 2006

A British listed mining company has paid the price of investing in Zimbabwe by losing a valuable diamond claim in the Marange communal lands. According to a Daily Telegraph report, African Consolidated Resources plc (ACR) has about 1000 claims in the country and was granted title to the diamond mine by the Ministry of Mines. The government has however ordered the company off the mine amidst reports that soldiers protecting it from illegal panners are now mining the diamonds themselves.

It’s estimated that US$300 million worth of diamonds dug out by desperate panners from the mine cannot be accounted for. The Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) the sole marketer of precious metals, only got a small fraction of the diamonds mined, with the rest unaccounted for.

An official for ACR, Dirk Benade told the Daily Telegraph "Between 6,000 and 15,000 people moved one million tonnes of earth by hand in a 1.4 sq mile area in a month. World-class machinery couldn't have moved what they did. The paper says, ‘as the hordes massed, they dug deep holes within a metre of one another. There were no toilet facilities, people were buying water with diamonds and sleeping in the holes, which they also used as latrines. The air was thick with flies.’

Illegal panners invaded the farm and were given the go-ahead by the mining ministry to continue digging up the diamonds, and it’s only a few weeks ago that they were told to stop. The police and army were then moved on to the farm to protect it from further digging. At this point the government decided to have the mine for itself and simply ordered ACR off the claim. The company says it will challenge the seizure in court.

Mutumwa Mawere a businessman who lost his Shabanie Mashaba Mines in similar circumstances says he is not surprised by the latest development; ‘Without the rule of law and without the respect for property rights you can’t have sustainable development.’ He says he does not see ACR succeeding in any court applications given he has also been down that road before. ‘I do see light at the end of the tunnel but that light is only the light of an oncoming train.’

Responding to questions on why US$300 million of diamonds cannot be accounted for, Mawere blasted the existence of a Minerals Marketing Corporation in Zimbabwe saying it was an unnecessary body. He says people who put their resources into getting a product and face domestic pressures like inflation were unlikely to sell to a middleman who offered poor prices. ‘Have you ever heard of a minerals marketing corporation in the US or Britain?’ he asked. He described the whole system as an attempt to control resources and the income generated.