According to The Zimbabwean, in an effort to monitor diamond production at the Chiadzwa diamond fields and comply with Kimberley Process guidelines, Zimbabwe’s government has sent evaluators to assess and supervise diamond production at the controversial site.

The evaluators left for the diamond fields where a joint venture between the government’s Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and a small South African company Core Mining – Mbada Diamonds – is mining the diamonds.

The Zimbabwean quotes a senior government official as saying: "Evaluators were invited by the government and they are already at the diamond mine with officials from Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe. The idea is for the government to monitor every production done so that there is proper accountability of day-to-day production. Finance Minister Tendai Biti has been tasked with handling that issue and is well aware of the presence of the evaluators.”

Earlier this month Zimbabwe claimed that it had prevented a planned auction of 300,000 carats of diamonds from the Chiadzwa fields after it became evident that the sale did not comply with KPCS procedures.

The world diamond industry is currently monitoring Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond industry in order to ensure that it complies with KPCS standards.

Zimbabwe’s army has been accused of grave human rights abuse at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. In response NGO’s have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds.

The KPCS gave Zimbabwe until June 2010 to introduce reforms in order to ensure compliance with its regulations.