Stakeholders in the country’s diamond sector are cleaning up their act ahead of a visit by the Kimberly Process (KP) in May this year that is set to review the country’s eligibility to continue in the KP family.
The Kimberley Process is a multilateral trade regime established in 2003 with the goal of preventing the flow of conflict diamonds and it periodically conduct reviews of member countries to ensure conformity to high standards.
To date the KP family has actively prevent 99.8 percent of conflict diamonds from accessing global supply chain.
As a prelude to the review visit in May, government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development has called together civil society actors and diamond industry players to conduct a self-assessment which started early this month.
Speaking at Kimberly Process Assessment Awareness Workshop in Harare this morning, Mines and Mineral Development Minister, Winston Chitando said a successful review is important for the future of the country’s diamond sector.
“Zimbabwe is due for a KP Review visit in May 2022; it is of utmost importance that the review is carried out successfully to ensure that we continue to be part of the KP family,” Chitando told stakeholders.
“As part of efforts to ensure that the Review is successful, the Ministry of Mines has coordinated the conduction of a KP Self-Assessment exercise which started at the beginning of March 2022. This will help us assess the state of our readiness for the review visit.”
Self-assessment reviews have already been conducted at Anjin Investments, RZM Murowa and Alrosa Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe is currently vice chair of the KP hence it will be crucial for the country to meet the benchmark of compliance to the minimum requirements of the KPCS,” said Chitando.
Diamonds are expected to contribute US$ 1 billion towards the attainment of the US$ 12 billion mining industry by 2023. Diamonds will become the third largest revenue contributor after gold at US$ 4 billion and Platinum at US$ 3 billion.
In 2010 Zimbabwe met minimum conditions set by the KPCS and got the green light to export the precious stones after meeting diamond trade standards in a report by Kimberley Process monitor Abbey Chikane.
This was after the bloodshed which characterized Chiadzwa diamond fields a few years prior upon the discovery of rough diamonds in the area.
