Herald Reporter

THE Kimberley Process monitor for Zimbabwe, Mr Abbey Chikane, arrived in Harare yesterday on a three-day fact-finding mission and immediately held meetings with officials from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners.

The visit is to assess if Zimbabwe is implementing an agreed work plan with regard to diamonds mined in Chiadzwa, which will then lead to compliance with the KP requirements.

Mr Chikane, who is the founder chairman of the Kimberley Process, met separately with Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu and Permanent Secretary Mr Thankful Musukutwa.

Yesterday, Minister Mpofu said: "We had a meeting with him this morning and an itinerary for him has been set and I hope this will be the start of his assignment.

"This is definitely as per our agreement at a KP meeting in Namibia where we agreed that Zimba-bwe should have a monitor as part of the Joint Work Plan.

"We are looking forward to a successful mission and as Government we are excited with the development.

"Zimbabwe has done its best to meet the set-out standards towards KP compliance."

Officials from the Ministry of Finance, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Minerals Unit and Marange Resources attended the meeting held at Minister Mpofu’s offices yesterday.

Also in attendance were officials from the Global Diamond Evaluators from Namibia.

Mr Chikane toured Mbada’s sorting and valuation facility at the Harare International Airport.

At the facility, Mbada carried out a demonstration of how diamonds from its mining activities at Chiadzwa fields were received.

He then had a private meeting with the MMCZ at its offices in Msasa in the afternoon.

Mr Chikane is expected to visit the Chiadzwa diamond fields today for first-hand information on activities by Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners there.

These two investors were granted mining licences by the Government last year and have since invested millions of dollars in state-of-the-art equipment at the diamond fields.

Mr Chikane is on a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Marange and determine his approach to the implementation of the Joint Work Plan.

The plan, adopted at the Swakopmund, Namibia Kimberley Process Session, provides for a series of commitments by Zimbabwe to bring diamond mining in Marange in full compliance with the KP.

In a statement on his arrival, Mr Chikane said Zimbabwe had been given various deadlines to comply with the KP and had until December 2010 to ensure that the Joint Work Plan was fully implemented.

"Chikane’s appointment as a monitor marks the

beginning of a collaborative approach to the implementation of the KP minimum requirements, which should result in Zimbabwe diamonds being traded legitimately on the global market," the statement from the KP Secretariat in Israel reads.

Mr Chikane will monitor and report to the KP and liaise with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development about the implementation of the Joint Work Plan.

He will also represent the KP with regard to the supervision of export mechanism for Marange diamonds.

Mr Chikane will provide regular quarterly progress reports on the Joint Work Plan implementation to the chairman of the Working Group on Monitoring, Mr Stephane Chardon, and a copy will also go to Minister Mpofu.

The KP is a joint government, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.

The KP Certification Scheme imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as "conflict-free".

As of November 2008, the KP had 49 members, representing 75 countries with the European Community and its member states counting as an individual participant.

Mr Chikane, a South African, told The Herald that he would not be based in Zimbabwe, but would visit the country every month to assess compliance.

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