New diamond mining in Zimbabwe has yielded million of carats of diamonds and could help catapult the nation into the ranks of the world’s top diamond producers, according to the head of a group of experts for the United Nations-backed effort to stop the trade in conflict diamonds.



“This is a world-class deposit, no doubt about it,” diamond expert Mark Van Bockstael told the New York Times. He described the concentrations of diamonds in the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe as among the highest in the world: “The deposit is a freak of nature.”



Whether Zimbabwe will be able to sell Marange diamonds on international markets as gems vetted by the Kimberley Process, i.e. – stones that do not finance conflict – is yet to be seen.



At a meeting that began Monday in Tel Aviv, member nations of the Kimberley Process will consider whether the Marange diamonds should be cleared for export. More than 70 countries have committed to not trading with nations that do not meet the effort’s standards.