Tendai Biti, head of Zimbabwe's Treasury, has called for a valuation of the country's diamond deposits, particularly in the Chiadzwa region, Zimbabwe's Newsday paper reports.

 

According to the report, current estimates put the potential annual yield from the Chiadzwa diamond fields at $2 billion. In volume, Chiadzwa is expected to produce 2.7 million carats of rough diamonds in 2010, bolstered by some 300,000 carats of diamonds from River Ranch and Murowa. Production in 2011 could reach 4 million carats.

 

Currently, three diamond mining firms have been licensed to mine at Chiadzwa – Mbada Diamonds, Canadile, and Anjin China.

 

Biti cited a number of other issues in Zimbabwe's diamond sector that should be addressed by the Zimbabwe government, including Kimberley Process certification; the process of handing out mining contracts; standards for policing mining and stopping smuggling; and compensating communities whose members have been relocated by the diamond mining industry.