Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Mbada Mining, which I first exposed on this blog as a shadowy company operating as a front for the interests of powerful figures within the Zimbabwe ruling party, ZANU PF and Army Generals, was to hold a massive auction of more than 60kgs of processed diamonds at Harare International Airport today but there are indications that the auction was postponed to allow Kimberley Process people to come and observe it, since the diamonds from Chiadzwa have been banned from being traded. The announcement of the auction, however, was a ploy designed to achieve a specific end Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 January 2010 It was a breathtaking act of defiance and audacity. Mbada Mining, a shadowy company operating in the notorious Chiadzwa diamond Fields in Eastern Zimbabwe, had simply announced, out of the blue, that it would hold a Chiadzwa diamond auction at Harare International Airport, where 300 000 carats of diamonds would be sold to the highest bidders. Except, of course, they could not do that because ...

The reddish-coloured diamonds of Marange in Zimbabwe have now been banned from trading by the Kimberley Certification Process Scheme, but diamonds from the rest of Zimbabwe will continue trading unabated. The Zimbabwe Government says it is earning only US$20 million a month from Marange diamonds, although Gideon Gono of the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank has said that sales of diamonds from the area are worth US$200 million a month. Harare, Zimbabwe, 6 November 2009 The Kimberley Certification Process Scheme meeting in Namibia has resolved to ban Zimbabwean diamonds from the Marange area while allowing diamonds from other areas to continue trading as usual. This was a cop-out by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. By allowing Zimbabwe to continue exporting diamonds from other areas, such as the River Ranch Diamond mine, Murowa etc, they have effectively ensured Marange diamonds will continue to be traded. The ban in trading only Marange diamonds, according to the unanimous decision of ...

Small-scale Diamond miners are seen here at the Marange Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe at the height of diamond fever. Zimbabwe's diamonds face an international ban from the Kimberley Certification Process in Swakopmund, Namibia. The Minister of Mines made a presentation yesterday in the coastal town and did not address the main concern: the presence of the army at the diamond fields. There is no doubt that government is panicking. Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 November 2009 Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines and a Vice-presidential aspirant, is in Namibia where he is fighting against the tide, in a battle to block a proposed ban on the trade in Zimbabwe's diamonds. Mpofu, with a straight face, says that the government of Zimbabwe has done all that it can to comply with the recommendations of the Kimberley Certification Process Team that visited Zimbabwe earlier in the year. Talk about eating humble pie! The team recommended that soldiers be removed from the Marange Diamond Field...

Zimbabwe's diamonds are safe, for now, with the Certification team currently in the country saying those calling for a ban of the diamonds from Zimbabwe are talking nonsense and "we will not entertain them." It means Grace, Gono and their runners can continue smuggling loose diamonds in handbags from Zimbabwe to be polished and sold off in China. Mugabe's government is might pleased with this and the state media will be crowing about it tomorrow. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 August 2009 Tomorrow the state media will be crowing louder than usual with regards to the proposed banning of diamonds from Zimbabwe by a Kimberley Process Team that was in the country more than a month ago. None other than the Chairman of the Kimberley Certification Process Scheme, Benhard Esau, is leading a team currently visiting Zimbabwe and he held a press conference here in Harare today. During the press conference, he said: "There are members of the Kimberley Process trying to convince other ...