Marange diamond mining companies in trouble

Mines and mining development minister Walter Chidakwa has received requests from two companies in the Chiadzwa diamond fields requesting more mining claims as the precious stone had been finished in the area.

Addressing Senate last Thursday, Chidakwa however said it was premature for the concessions to say there was no longer diamonds in the area.  

"The question that I asked them was, have you done any exploration to see whether you have conglomerate or kimberlite diamonds?

"They said no. I then said, I think it is pre-mature for you to say that the concession does not have anything until such time as you have conducted exploration," Chidakwa said.

He said there was desire by companies in Marange to have more properties allocated to them as it is easy to do alluvial diamond mining.

"It requires less capital. The grades were fairly high compared to other alluvial diamond mining activities in other parts of the world," Chidakwa said.

"Unfortunately, the companies did not prepare themselves for much more expensive activities in mining, which is going into the earth's crust to look for diamonds.

"Because of that, some of them are now not prepared to go into the earth's crust and therefore, are asking for more concessions so that they can continue to do more alluvial diamond mining."

The minister said government would not allocate new concessions to companies until the companies have done explorations that prove that they no longer have diamonds in total.

"So the issue is not whether we have diamonds or not. The issue is that the companies have run out of alluvial diamonds which are easy to mine and are not willing to go and spend money to mine the diamonds in the earth's crust," Chidakwa said.

"I have had discussions with them. We are pushing them and we will continue to ensure that they do not come and scrape the top and go away.

"We are not prepared to spend time on the surface when God has given us something in the earth's crust. So we still have diamonds. We are 25% to 30% holder of world reserves."