The Chairperson of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) Ahmed bin Sulayem visited Zimbabwe as part of a familiarisation tour of KP member states from the continent where most of the rough diamonds in the world are mined and had meetings with President Robert Mugabe and Minister of Mines and Mining Development Walter Chidhakwa, according to reports in the African media.

Bin Sulayem also paid a visit to the mining region of Marange and was reported to have said that he was impressed by the system Zimbabwe put in place at Chiadzwa diamond fields.

The KP told the media that he was on a routine visit and had earlier also gone to Burkina Faso, Congo and Central African Republic. He was scheduled to visit Namibia immediately after his Zimbabwe sojourn.

He briefed the Zimbabwe government officials on the Diamond Valuation Forum that was being held in Belgium later during the week which would discuss beneficiation, value addition and the means for producers to maximise the returns from diamond mining activity within the country.