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ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT HAS NO CAPACITY TO MINE DIAMONDS
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THE ZIMBABWE government has no technical or financial capacity to extract diamonds in Marange, necessitating the need for a foreign technical partner, according to industry sources. And presenting his monetary policy interim review statement in Bulawayo, Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, said that the government should reclassify diamonds as a national reserve asset, in the same way as gold. |
The government took over the diamond claims from a British company, Africa Consolidated Resources, last year. The company has since filed an application in the courts contesting the takeover. Gono has however said that the government needed a competent technical partner to mine Zimbanwe's diamonds.
And while commending the Ministry of Mines for facilitating the actual mining in Marange, he called for this process to be fortified through transparent mechanisms that will ensure the achievement of fair value for local diamonds. Since the discovery of diamonds in Marange, the exploitation has been haphazard and this has resulted in uncontrolled leakages of the precious mineral by ordinary citizens and top government officials.
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