Antwerp Hosting First Tender of Zimbabwe Diamonds

Botswana company, First Element Bvba, will be staging the first tender of diamonds from Zimbabwe in Antwerp later this week.

The tender includes about 300,000 carats mined by the firms mining in Marange, including Anjin Investments, Marange Resources, Zimbabwe Diamond Mining Company (ZDMC), Jinan and Kusena.

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) announced that the tender will take place in the Antwerp Diamond Tender Facility in the AWDC's building and that viewing of the goods is available from December 11 to 16.

The diamond tender is the first to be held in Antwerp since the European Union lifted sanctions against the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) in September.

The AWDC said the tender is the result of high-level meetings of Zimbabwean officials and the AWDC in Zimbabwe and Antwerp in the past month.