3 Mark van Boschel, an expert on the footprinting or location of diamond sites, who is based at the World Diamond Centre in Belgium, says Zimbabwe has the largest diamond deposits worldwide and they “are a billion years old”. In eastern Zimbabwe, there is a 70km belt of kimberlite diamonds from the Chiadzwa district of Marange to the Chimanimani Mountains [on the Mozambique border] 2. Depending on the dollar per carat value of the Marange diamonds, media reports have suggested that the value of the deposits “could be worth up to US$800 billion….” 3 In December 2010, an industry expert told the Telegraph (UK) it was “the richest diamond field ever seen by several orders of magnitude.” 4 According to an article in the Belfast Telegraph, it is estimated that the fields could meet a quarter of the world’s demand for diamonds. 5 Finance minister Tendai Biti has described the 60,000 hectare Marange diamond field… as ‘the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in the history of mankind’. “Potential revenue is estimated at US$1 billion-US$1.7 billion a year, about half the crisis-ridden country’s total forecast GDP [in 2010] and enough to end its economic woes almost at a stroke,” the Economist (UK) reported. “But if the revenue fell exclusively into the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF it could, critics argue, spell the return of a single-party dictatorship and end the present shaky power-sharing arrangement between [President] Mugabe and [Prime Minister]Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).” 6 “One industry insider who has visited the area, and who spoke to Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) 7 on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the caratage of Marange is ‘virtually unheard of’ and ‘bigger by order of magnitude than anything mined anywhere in the world’. It’s a complete freak.” 8 African Consolidated Resources, [which has the mineral rights to a 1,800 hectare site], told PAC that Marange’s output could sustain three million carats a month for 14 years 9, or if mined at a steady and (more) responsible rate, it would have an estimated 30-year mine life. 10 2 The Zimbabwean, ‘Zim’s diamond deposits largest in the world’, 18 May 2011: http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/39695/zims-diamond-deposits--largest-in-world.html 3 Sunday Times (SA), ‘Fabulous wealth in Marange diamonds’, 8 August 2010: http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article591181.ece/Fabulous-wealth-in-Marange-diamonds 4 The Telegraph (UK), ‘Zimbabwe’s Blood Diamonds exposed by Wikileaks cable’, 10 December 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/8192700/Zimbabwes-Blood-Diamondsexposed-by-Wikileaks-cable.html 5 Belfast Telegraph, ‘Zimbabwe holds £1bn diamond sale’, 11 August 2010: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/zimbabwe-holds-1bn-diamond-sale14904660.html#ixzz1US7U9Ebq 6 The Economist (UK), ‘President Robert Mugabe is determined that diamonds should prop up his party’, 24 June 2010: http://www.economist.com/node/16438814 7 8 Partnership Africa Canada, a Canadian non-profit organisation: www.pacweb.org Partnership Africa Canada, ‘Diamonds and Clubs’, June 2010, pg 14: http://www.pacweb.org/Documents/diamonds_KP/Zimbabwe-Diamonds_and_clubs-eng-June2010.pdf