Mpofu blames UK mining firm for Zim diamond crisis

By Alex Bell
18 March 2010

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has gone on the offensive in the midst of a probe into the country’s diamond crisis, saying the UK firm with the legal title to mine the controversial Chiadzwa claim is to blame for the same crisis.

Mpofu was speaking to reporters at parliament on Wednesday, just before appearing before a parliamentary committee investigating operations in Chiadzwa. He declared that the London-based mining firm African Consolidated Resources (ACR) ‘controlled by one white man’, will never mine diamonds at Chiadzwa as long as he is in charge of the ministry. Mpofu said ACR head, Andrew Cranswick should be ‘punished’ because his company foiled Mpofu’s attempts sell the diamonds at a recent auction.
“That man will never mine in this country as long as I am minister. Cranswick, only one man, has caused all the chaos. That one white man does not even employ, his company is listed in Britain yet he holds Zimbabwe to ransom,” said Mpofu.

ACR was forced to abandon the Chiadzwa claim at gunpoint in 2006, and has since been fighting a protracted legal battle over the ownership rights. At least 30 kgs of diamonds at the centre of the ownership debate have since been handed to the Reserve Bank for ‘safekeeping’ after one of the new mining firms, given Mpofu’s blessing to mine in Chiadzwa, tried to auction the gems off earlier this year. The auction was stopped because the proper authorities were not informed, including the international diamond trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process. ACR at the time warned that any diamonds bought from Zimbabwe were stolen, because they are mined from a ‘stolen’ claim.

The auction is one of the reasons behind the parliamentary probe, which has been delayed for several weeks. The parliamentary committee has been snubbed three times by the two diamond mining firms given government’s approval to mine in Chiadzwa, under the Mines Minstry’s orders. Officials from Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners, which are joint ventures with the government’s Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), face serious questions about who gave them the rights to mine the fields. Finance Minister Tendai Biti has recently stated that the permits were issued fraudulently.