Justice Charles Hungwe of Zimbabwe's High Court has reserved judgment on the government's case against African Consolidated Resources' (ACR) claims to the Chiadzwa diamond fields and is expected to hand down his ruling soon, the Zimbabwe Guardian reported.

Attorney Farai Mutamangira argued the case on behalf of the government, which is seeking to overturn Hungwe's ruling of September 27, 2009, which backed up the ACR's claim to Chiadzwa. Mutamangira argued that the company had hidden information that was important to the case.

The government is basing its challenge to ACR's mining claims on its argument that ACR perpetrated fraud by registering mining claims at a time when it would have been nearly impossible to do so.

“At the time of the registration of the mining claims, the ACR group companies did not exist and, consequently, the claims were registered through fraudulent misrepresentation and in doing so the ACR group did not comply with mandatory requirements set out in the Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21: 05],” read the government’s argument.

The appeal was filed on May 10, 2010. In the last hearing, Jonathan Samkange, representing ACR, described Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Mpofu as a "thief" and alleged that Mpofu had stolen maps that could have been entered into evidence and had used his influence with the Deputy Sheriff to "remove" diamonds exhibited at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. A High Court judge forced Samkange to retract his statement.



Last week, a diamond industry expert said that if the Marange diamond fields were exploited to their full extent, Zimbabwe could become the largest producer of rough diamonds in the world.