The objections of a number of Kimberley Process member nations – including the US, Canada, and the EU – will not affect KP Chairman Mathieu Yamba's March 19 decision to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds mined in the Marange diamond fields, Yamba has told Bloomberg.

One of the major objections raised to Yamba's move is that it was not taken in accordance with KP policy, which mandates that all decisions be taken by consensus. After Yamba informed KP members that he would allow Zimbabwe to export Marange diamonds until the matter could be reviewed by the KP Working Group on Monitoring – scheduled to meet in November – the US announced that it would publish the names of all diamond companies trading in Marange goods on a government website.

The World Diamond Council issued an advisory to its members to refrain from trading in Marange diamonds until the matter of Yamba's decision could be clarified.

Zimbabwe's Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu, meanwhile, told Bloomberg that his country was in compliance with KP demands and called the objections from the US, Australia, and Canada "political games."

Mpofu, who has long characterized Western nations' sanctions on Zimbabwe's diamond trade as "politicization" of the KP process, said that the countries which objected to Yamba's decision to allow exports of Marange diamonds were "bent on frustrating our economic development."