Pursuant to the agreement at the Kimberly Process (KP) mini-summit to allow two supervised diamond exports from Zimbabwe, the first sale of KP certified Marange diamonds took place this week. The auction drew buyers from Israel, Lebanon and Russia and other countries, gathered at the Harare airport, to bid for the lot of about 900,000 carats of diamonds valued at $72 million. The actual revenues from the auction are yet to be revealed.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was present at the auction ceremony. The sale carried the hope that transparency be maintained so that the sale proceeds benefit the citizens of Zimbabwe.

The stockpile on sale is owned by Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and the diamonds were mined by its partner firms, Mbada Mining and Canadile Mining. In July, the KP had decided to certify a portion of the Marange diamonds between May 28 and August 1. KP monitor Abbey Chikane who was on a KP review mission in Marange, certified the stones for sale earlier this week.