DIAMOND mining giant, De Beers has dismissed as “outrageous and incredible” allegations by the Zimbabwe government that the firm looted the Marange diamonds for 15 years without notifying authorities of the discovery.

Mines and mining development minister, Obert Mpofu early this month claimed that De Beers had extracted tonnes of diamonds from the area while giving government the impression that they were only prospecting and carrying out tests.

“Everyone knows that the diamonds at Chiadzwa are mined from the surface and De Beers was for the last 15 years alleging that they were doing prospecting and carrying out tests when in actual fact they were looting diamonds from Chiadzwa,” Mpofu said.

The government says De Beers only pulled out of the country after government launched a probe into the company’s activities in the area.

However De Beers has dismissed the allegations as outrageous saying it was impossible to conduct mining activities for 15 years without attracting attention.

“If we had been mining 'tonnes' of diamonds, over a 15 year period, there would be a very large hole indeed left behind in Marange. Industrial mining of this magnitude would have been impossible to disguise, let alone keep secret,” De Beers spokesperson Lynette Gould told an industry publication, Rough & Polished.

Gould said the company started prospecting the Marange area in the early 1990s but left the country in 2006 after concluding that the deposits were not in line with the firm’s other activities elsewhere across the continent.

“Amongst the reasons for relinquishing the Marange licenses back to the government were: most significantly, after carrying out sampling across the area we concluded that the deposit did not fit the profile of our other activities elsewhere in southern Africa.

“De Beers' exploration focus is on primary deposits and our view was that our resources would be better invested in other prospective areas more suited to our commercial objectives; in addition, the (Zimbabwe) government had created an environment of uncertainty regarding the status and future of the concession and by 2006, the area was being worked by unmanaged, itinerate diggers,” Gould said.

The De Beers spokesperson ruled out any future interest in the Zimbabwe diamond sector saying the company was focussing its exploration efforts on Botswana, Canada, Angola, South Africa and India.

Following De Beers departure from Marange, junior resources group African Consolidated Resources (ACR) took over the claims but government has since cancelled the company’s licence.

The state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) has since entered into joint ventures with two private companies to exploit the deposits.