Mining Ministers of several leading rough diamond producing countries have confirmed their attendance of the Zimbabwe Diamond Conference 2014, organised by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development of Zimbabwe in Harare. The Conference which will be held on November 6th and 7th, 2014, will be focussed on the subject “Completing Zimbabwe’s Diamond Potential for the Future.”

The dignitaries who have confirmed their presence are:  NgoakoRamatlhodi, Minister of Mineral Resources of the Republic of South Africa;  IsakKatali, the Minister of Mines and Energy of the Republic of Namibia; Martin KabweluluLabilo, the Minister of Mining of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and  Bernardo Campos, the Vice Chair of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

According to industry analysts, a press release by ZDC organisers states, Africa accounts for 61 percent of the world’s diamond production by value and 56 percent by volume.

Commented conference organiser Francis Gudyanga, the permanent secretary of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, “In fact, six African producers account for 98 per cent of African volume and 93 per cent of African output value. Most likely, all of these six countries will be actively represented at, or participating in, the Zimbabwe Diamond Conference 2014. It truly will be a major African diamond event.”

Gudyanga added, “Most of the world’s alluvial mining output comes from the African continent. This type of mining is exceedingly labour intensive. The largest diamond mining company in the world, which operates mostly kimberlite operations, has a global workforce of some 12,000 workers (87 per cent of them in Africa). However, the 15 African producers may have a million or so workers, most of these are diggers in the informal sectors. The enormous diamond industry challenges which Africa faces have never before been addressed in an African diamond conference.”

Apart from the African Mining Ministers other notable speakers from the international diamond industry include: HE Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of DMCC; Ernie Blom, President of the WFDB; Eli Izhakoff, Honorary President of WFDB, WDC and CIBJO; Gaetano Cavalieri, President CIBJO; Peter Meeus, Chairman DDE; Reuven Kaufman, President DDC, New York; Lin Qiang, President of the SDE.

Veteran industry analyst and commentator Chaim Even Zohar will moderate the conference.