The Zimbabwe High Court ordered the state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) to immediately stop all mining operations until it had been issued a Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate.
The order comes after the High Court took cognisance of a suit filed by Marange Development Trust (MDT), a community lobby group, along with the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association. The MDT had filed an application with the court in February seeking its intervention to stop the ZCDC from operating without an EIA.
The ZCDC, in its court response, sought the continuance of operations pending the approval of an EIA submitted to the Environment Management Agency in 2016.
The judge, however, observed that the ZCDC knew that it was operating illegally, without an EIA and ordered it to stop operations immediately. He also ordered the ZCDC to pay the costs of the legal action.
Deputy Mines Minister Fred Moyo expressed surprise, observing that the ZCDC “should have known and abided by the law.”
The ZCDC was formed in February last year, when the Zimbabwe government evicted eight private firms who were mining the Marange diamond fields along with a ninth, government-owned firm. All the operations were combined and brought under the ZCDC.