Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was recently quoted by Harare's state-run Herald newspaper as accusing diamond giant De Beers, among other multinational firms, of looting the Marange diamond fields under the pretence of prospecting.

Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said, according to MmegiOnline, that Zimbabwe's government believes that De Beers' claims of exploration work were meant to cover unauthorized mining.

"When the government finally realized this and tried to arrest them, that's when they hurriedly pulled out and claimed the diamonds were not of commercial value," Charamba said. "Why should it take 15 years for such an experienced company to conclude that our diamonds are of no value to them?"

The spokesman added that Harare cannot pursue the matter further "because we cannot establish how much of the diamonds have been taken. But the most important thing now is that we now have our mines back."

De Beers Director of International Relations Andrew Bone denied Mugabe's accusations, calling them incredible and fictitious: "We were in the Marange fields from 1993 to 2006. We only did core sampling (and) the deposits we found there did not fit into our portfolio.

"The bottom line is that there are ridiculous allegations and there is no evidence of De Beers' mining diamonds in that area."