Written question asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Howell of Guildford (Conservative) on Monday, 3 October 2011.

Zimbabwe

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, as a member of the European Union backing sanctions against Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), they are issuing warnings to importers not to buy diamonds from Canadile Miners or Mbada Diamonds, which are 50 per cent owned by ZMDC.

Answer: It is for all businesses to assess whether their proposed business activities are compliant with existing restrictive measures and seek appropriate independent legal advice. The restrictive measures imposed on Zimbabwe prohibit the making available of funds or economic resources to directly or indirectly listed entities. Marange Resources (formerly Canadile Miners) and Mbada Diamonds are not themselves designated entities. However, if making resources available to them conferred a significant financial benefit on a designated entity such as ZMDC, as would often be the case with joint ventures, this would be a breach of the measures. There are also restrictions under the Kimberley Process (KP) on diamonds exports from the Marange region in which the mining operations of Marange Resources (formerly Canadile Mines) and Mbada Diamonds are located. Given the continuing absence of a KP agreement allowing Zimbabwe to export Marange diamonds, the EU Chair of the Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) has issued a statement to all KP participants which makes clear that until consensus is reached, KP participants should not trade in Marange diamonds. We have informed the UK diamond industry of this statement by the WGM chair.

Secondary information