RAPAPORT… Venezuela will recommence exports of rough diamonds as
members of the Kimberley Process (KP) unanimously agreed to end the nation’s
eight-year absence.
Delegates approved the South American country’s re-admission
at the KP plenary in Dubai last week, Venezuela’s Mining Ministry announced.
The country committed to host a review visit no later than six months after the resumption of exports, the KP said in a communiqué.
Venezuela withdrew
itself from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in 2008 over
accusations traders in the South American country were trafficking uncertified
diamonds to evade taxes on exports.
The nation shipped out 23,472 carats of rough valuing
$$882,130 in 2005, the last year in it exported diamonds, according to KP
data.
Image: OsmanFernandez