Glittering Stones News,Diamonds news,Gems and jewelry news

The supreme court of Zimbabwe has ordered the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe keeping millions of dollar worth diamonds, mined from controversial chiadzwa diamond fields whose ownership remains in dispute.

The latest ruling stems from an ownership wrangle over the diamond claims in the eastern Marange district with a British firm, African Consolidated Resources will its diamonds from the area government. 

“The chief justice said that the diamond should be kept by a neutral party until the resolution of ownership dispute gets completed”, said by Jonathan samkange lawyer of ACR.

Also, he said that the court has been ordered the Zimbabwe mining development corporation to return of the diamonds extracted from African consolidated resources.

Samkange said that the court order will affect 129 000 carats of diamonds including gems mined by ACR, gems seized by police and precious stones already mined.

In 2006 ACR get hold of the claims, but the license was later cancelled by the government prompting the firm to seek recourse in the court.

The Zimbabwe mining development corporation set up a joint venture with two private companies to mine the diamonds. But the marketing is currently
The industry associations and rights groups have stepped the efforts to ensure the operations in marange that it complies with the Kimberly process.

A union of industry associations and representatives recently met with top US. State Department officials to urge a tough stance on Zimbabwe to ensure the country is being monitored in accordance with the Kimberley Process.

The industry representatives want to see the U.S. government and other nations involved in the Kimberley Process will implement a “joint work plan” aimed at bringing Zimbabwe into full compliance with the process.

People involved in the Kimberly Process, which is designed to stem the flow of conflict diamonds worldwide, developed a plan at their last meeting in Namibia, which addressed issues of non-compliance and alleged human rights abuses at the Marange fields.

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation has planned to introduce a gemological mini conference at the beginning of the 2010 congress. The purpose is to make it an important part of each subsequent future congress. This year, the theme for the gemmological mini conference is “Ruby Day”. The conference includes presentation and discussion about the research and finding of ruby, the red gemstone variety of the mineral corundum.

On Feb. 19th at the International Congress Centre Messe Muenchen, the event takes place. Ruby day conference is an idea of Dr. Margherita Superchi, the renowned Italian gemologist and the president of the CIBJO Gemmological Commission. It is an opportunity hired at free of cost for gemmological, jewelers and other industry professional to talk about recent gemstone research and gemmological updates from CIBJO congress.

The list of speakers in Ruby Day Conference includes

Wolfgang Hofmeister, Dean of the Faculty for Chemistry, Pharmacy and Geosciences of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.
Topic: Mineralogy of ruby deposits connecting North-Vietnam and South-China

Pornsawat Wathanakul, Academic Adviser of the Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (GIT); Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Topic: Low temperature treatment of Mong Hsu ruby

Kenneth Scarratt, Managing Director, South East Asia & Director, GIA Laboratory, Bangkok, Thailand.
Topic: Rubies from Mozambique, before and after treatment

Adolf Peretti, Director of the GRS Laboratories, Geneva, Switzerland
Topic: Occurrence and identification of rubies from Winza, Tanzania

Claudio Milisenda, Director of the Deutsche Stiftung für Edelstein Forschung (DSEF) – the German Gem Lab, Idar Oberstein, Germany.
Topic: Recent observations on synthetic rubies

Michael S. Krzemnicki, Director of the Schweizerische Stiftung für Edelstein-Forschung (SSEF) – Swiss Gemmological Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
Topic: Heating and diffusion processes on rubies: characteristics, detection and declaration

Elena Gambini, Head of Gem Materials Department, Centro Informazione e Servizi Gemmologici (CISGEM) – Centre for Information and Services on Gemmology, Milan, Italy.
Topic: Glass in rubies: various cases, their detection and declaration

A Piece from Diamond Jewelry

On Thursday at Harry Oppenheimer diamond museum, a new diamond jewelry exhibition designed by the members of Israel community of designers is opened. The diamond exhibition displays the work of 25 contemporary jewelry designers. Each designer is provided with 3 carats of diamonds by Israeli diamond companies valued at $5000. The task is that each piece of jewelry must contain a diamond in it.

The diamond exhibition is mutually curated by batia wang, head of jewelry designers section of community of designers and yehuda kassif, art director of the museum.

The show was designed by Ayal Schoenbaum of Tukan Designs who also takes an active participation in the exhibition as jewelry designer.

At the end, the diamond jewelry will be placed for sale in the exhibition.

At the end, the diamond jewelries will be placed for sale in the exhibition.

Zimbabwe Diamond Mine

The human right group fights for the abuses that continuously taken place in Zimbabwe diamond mines.

The Zimbabwe authorities have made a decision regarding the halt of three day sale of about 300,000 carats of rough diamonds.

The global witness says that some mines in Zimbabwe remains in the hands of military despite of an agreement made with international monitors.

The insiders reports BBC that the sale was only stopped after blood diamonds trade monitors occur.

Anne Dunnebacke, global witness says that “we are delighted that this auction has been cancelled, but still concerned about the situation in the diamonds fields in Marange.

Senior Zimbabwe mines ministry official Thanked Musukutwa and he told that the auction has been stopped because it is not approved by the Kimberley process (KP). It set up to regulate the trade in blood diamonds

It is declared that No exports should take place prior to certification by KP monitor. As per the reports, some 80% of sales from the three day auction would have gone to the Zimbabwe government.

Ms Dunnebacke says, the other diamond fields have been taken over by the companies and she believes that large proportion of marange diamond fields are remains under the military control.

The remainder of the diamond field appears to be still under the military control and still the military is taking part in exploitation, the trading and the smuggling. The associated human rights abuse such kind of acts.

To extract the diamonds in October, Zimbabwe has gone into a partnership with two South African owned firms.

Last November, Zimbabwe has hardly missed from being suspended from KP and so it is banned from selling diamonds.

Examining the shipment that come from Marange Mines has been monitored and within June the diamond trade activity should be cleaned.

Evidence has been found from the investigation that the people are killed and forced at Marange field after soldier moved in.

It has been accused that the military of carrying out the widespread atrocities in the mines and says that the profit from the stones go to President Robert Mugabe and his allies.

Government denies such type of allegations.

(Image Source – BBC News)

Blood Diamonds

Zimbabwe military controls large swaths of major diamond field where soldiers are accused of forcing civilians to mine the gems

Global witness, A British based group monitors the exploitation of natural resources. They welcomed the decision of Zimbabwe to halt a diamond auction on Thursday saying that the sale would violate the international rules meant to stem the trade in blood diamonds.

Elly harrowell, campaigner of conflict diamonds, says that the global witness did not believe the statement given by the Zimbabwe mines minister obert Mpofu i.e. the soldiers and police have withdrawn from the fields in November.

She said that we would not take the minister statement as reliable and also our information shows that it is not true. It is likely to believe that the military is withdrawn from two small areas, a report to AFP.

The eastern marange diamond fields cover some 66,000 hectares and the gems were discovered only there in 2006.

Harrowell says that, as per the past history, it is likely known that the military is still there. Still, they are forcing the local people to mining syndicates.

Global witness is forced to ban on Zimbabwe international sales over the abuses at marange, after Kimberley investigation documented.

Government says that the two South African firms now run marange and the companies are tired of beginning the diamond auction on Thursday till the Government suspends the sale.