Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary for the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development, Thankful Musukutwa, said he was not prepared to work with Farai Maguwu, who is a representative from the Kimberley Process’ (KP) civil society, according to The Standard.
Musukutwa, who represents the government at the KP, claimed that Maguwu had acted in a “treasonous” manner when he handed over a government document to Zimbabwe’s KP monitor, Abbey Chikane, during a fact-finding mission conducted in May. Maguwu was subsequently arrested and remained in jail until he was released on bail in mid-July, after which he was appointed as a representative of KP’s civil society in Zimbabwe.
“Maguwu has adopted a confrontational stance against government and as a civil servant unless government’s stance changes on that I am not prepared to work with him as a focal person for civil society,” Musukutwa reportedly said at a two-day capacity-building workshop held for the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy.
The permanent secretary was instrumental in drafting the KP work program that ultimately enabled Zimbabwe to start exporting rough diamonds mined at the controversial Marange fields. The second sale of these diamonds took place in September in Harare.
Trans Hex Sale Totals $16 Million
Trans Hex sold $15.7 million (ZAR 114.7 million) worth of diamonds from its South Africa operations in May. The sale achieved an average price of $927 per carat.
At press time, Trans Hex expected to sell a minimum of 8,300 carats at its September sale from its Luana project in Angola. Trans Hex, which owns 33 percent of Luana, began pilot mining there in July and sold 26,452 carats for $8.2 million, or $312 per carat.
Namdeb’s Production Surges
Namdeb’s production rose 107 percent year on year to 795,000 carats during the first half of 2010, according to a Mining Weekly report. Nearly 538,000 carats were produced through Namdeb’s marine operations off the coast of Namibia. The company’s rough sales rose 22 percent year on year to $250 million during the six-month period. Namdeb, a joint venture between De Beers and Namibia, also recorded profits of $36 million, whereas it reported a loss of $56 million (NAD 396 million) for the first half of 2009.
Moody’s Ups ALROSA Outlook
Moody’s Investors Service improved its outlook on ALROSA to “stable,” with the change specifically pertaining to the Russian miner’s corporate family rating, and ALROSA Finance S.A.’s senior unsecured guaranteed notes. Moody’s noted that the adjustment was fueled by ALROSA’s strong sales recovery this year, its own expectation of solid diamond pricing in the medium term, the miner’s capital investments in new underground mines and its recent placement of approximately $838 million (RUB 26 billion) in both long- and medium-term notes on the domestic market, which helped boost its overall liquidity.
—Additional reporting provided by Acquire Media.
Open Source Minerals Resigns From RJC
The Fair Jewellery Action (FJA) blog reported that Open Source Minerals resigned as a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) due to its inaction on Zimbabwe. Open Source Minerals joined RJC in June 2009, but according to FJA blogger Marc Choyt, could no longer associate itself with RJC, given the “allowance of diamonds from the Marange field in Zimbabwe” and the site’s human rights violations.
Choyt, an FJA cofounder, reprinted the resignation letter from Open Source Minerals founder, Mike Angenent. In the letter, Angenent expressed his conviction that the RJC’s responsibility “should in the first place extend to the villagers of Marange that discovered the diamonds in 2006.” The letter also addressed the question of legal ownership of Chiadzwa goods, “which has been ignored” by the Kimberley Process (KP) and disregard for national laws and sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2010. To subscribe click here.