Surat's diamond industry is concerned by recent reports that Russia's Gokhran is making attempts to secure diamond mining contracts in Zimbabwe's controversial Marange fields, the Times of India reports.



The Chinese diamond mining company Anjin has already become the biggest company extracting diamonds in Zimbabwe. According to diamond traders quoted in the Times, if Russia also begins mining diamonds there, the two countries will eventually control Zimbabwe's rough diamond resources and re-sell the rough product to Surat at premium prices via major international diamond trading hubs.

Blue Star Group Chairman Ashit Mehta called the reports a "big blow to Indian diamond manufacturers." Mehta said that India's national government needed to "wake up."



Surat's diamantaires are suffering from a lack of rough diamonds for manufacturing and have recently begun pressing the national government to allow import of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe despite the Kimberley Process ban.