The Mining Minsiter Esperanca Bias of Mozambique has stated that the county wishes to start mining its own diamonds soon and wants to join the Kimberley Process Diamond Certification Scheme by this December.  “Government’s idea is that we shouldn’t lose time. We are in the prospecting phase, yes, but we have to join the Kimberley Process already, so that we are familiar with it when we start mining activities.” stated Bias.

Tests on sample diamonds are currently underway to see if the diamonds will be commercially feasible.

This is great news for the county and anti-blood-diamond advocates as the Kimberley Process is an international organization whose goal is to rid conflict ridden diamonds in the market by certifying mined diamonds from only conflict free mines.

Mozambique, which is known for and currently experiencing an infestation of diamond smuggling operations from Zimbabwe’s notorious Marange mines, has currently approved 40 licenses for prospecting to 27 companies looking to open mines currently.

The Marange mines of Zimbabwe, is one of the richest deposits of diamonds in this century and is a hot bed of controversy over the violence and abuse perpetrated by the Zimbabwe Government, lead by the President Robert Mugabe.

Human rights monitors report that the country’s military confiscated the Marange mines in 2008, by evicting and slaughtering tens of thousands of local miners and inhabitants.   In one instance it was reported that the Air Force of Zimbabwe launched an attack on the locals by opening fire on some 30,000 people with helicopter gunships.

Today the Kimberley Process has effectively improved the conditions of the miners and locals at Marange by applying pressure, directives, and bans on the mines.