RAPAPORT… Anjin Investments, which mines diamonds in the Marange, lost out on a $20 million business deal with a European firm in March when the United States froze a Belgium based firm’s bank account to prevent the deal from occurring.
According to The Herald, Anjn’s secretary, Charles Tanumbwa, said the company had not yet released the diamonds as they were waiting for the money to be transferred prior to the deal. “But the freezing of the money has an adverse effect on us because good and well paying diamond buyers are in Europe, so they become very hesitant to buy our gems in the wake of the freezing of the monies,” Tarumbwa said.
The U.S. and E.U. have sanctions on people and entities in Zimbabwe and the list was recently expanded to include those companies mining diamonds in the Marange fields.
Tarumbwa noted that Anjin’s production had slumped from 10,000 to 3,000 carats a day as a result of a shift to underground mining, which requires heavy earth moving equipment and more time consuming mining methods.
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