Rio Tinto 'eyes Zimbabwe diamond

Harare, 01 June-(ANA)-A diamond firm in Zimbabwe which is majority owned by Rio Tinto says it hopes to raise output sharply at a mine in the south of the country.

A $300m (£207m) expansion of the 300,000-carat per year Murowa mine is being prepared, Reuters has reported.

Rio Tinto owns 78% of Murowa, and Rio Zim, a Zimbabwean-owned unit separated from Rio Tinto in 2004, owns the rest.

Now Murowa is talking to the government about its recent decision to ban all diamond sales from Zimbabwe.

Human rights groups had accused Zimbabwe's security forces of abuses in the poorly secured Marange diamond fields in the eastern part of the country, and had been pushing for a ban on the stones. (ANA)

FA/ANA/01 June 2010---------