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From: as on 16 Dec 2009 18:10
Herald Story is Absolute Nonsense � Minister

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Gift Phiri Tuesday, 15 December 2009 12:13 HARARE - The
Minister of Mines and Mining Development minister has dismissed as
"nonsense" claims by official media that the Zimbabwean government has
stopped two companies licensed to mine the Chiadzwa diamond fields
ostensibly because of environment concerns.

Minister Obert Mpofu told The Zimbabwean that it was "absolute
nonsense" that two South African companies recently licensed by the
government, Canadile Miners and Mbada Mining (Pvt) Ltd, to mine the
Chiadzwa diamond fields, located in the Marange region, some 90 km
southwest of the city of Mutare, on the eastern border with Mozambique
had been stopped pending an environment assessment.

The reported government order to halt operations comes after the two
companies had set up multi million dollar State-of-the-art plants to
process rough diamonds fom the lucrative fields, including excavators,
earthmovers to density medium separators.

The companies were awarded mining contracts for one of the world�s
richest diamond fields by the Zimbabwe government � even though a
British-registered firm African Consolidated Resources has a high court
order saying it alone has a right to the claim.

Mpofu told The Zimbabwean: "Thats nonsense. Get the truth from the
authorities. Phone ZMDC (Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation). They
are the ones who own that claim."

Asked then why the official Herald had reported the matter as gospel
truth, Mpofu said: "They are just excited. They (Herald) also should
have checked with the authorities. Phone Mubaiwa at ZMDC."

Mubaiwa was not immediately available at the time of going to press.
The Herald reported that Zimbabwe�s Environment Management Agency (EMA)
has stepped in and stopped operations claiming Mbada Diamond Mining
failed to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment before starting
to mine. The newspaper did not state why EMA turned a blind eye to the
firm�s operations until now amid the high publicity that surrounded the
launch of the mining operations at the fields.

The environment assessment can take months, and Mpofu dismissed the
report as a figment of the newspaper's imagination.

If true, the order would have represented a huge loss of revenue for
Mbada Mining (Pvt) Ltd, which had installed a plant to mine 300,000
tons of ore per hour and was in the process of investing in another
plant with a capacity to process 100,000 tons of ore per hour.

The newspaper had claimed the parastatal ZMDC would use the equipment,
worth more than US$100 million, which the two companies had put on site
at the diamond fields to continue mining. It is not clear why the
environment assessment exempts ZMDC.

Efforts to obtain comment from Canadile local representative Lovemore
Kurotwa were futile at the time of going to print

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