De Beers Considers Buying Murowa Diamond Mine

Diamond company De Beers is considering purchasing the Murowa mine, one of mining giant Rio Tinto's remaining diamond assets, Rough and Polished reports. Rio already publicly announced that it was interested in selling off its diamond industry holdings, but it has been several months since then and it still has not found a buyer for the Murowa mine in Zimbabwe.

Industry insiders say that there are seven separate parties in talks with Rio to purchase the Murowa mine and that De Beers is only one of these. According to the insiders, most of the other offers come from investors based in either Zimbabwe or South Africa. Zimbabwe law requires that at least 51% of all mines be owned by indigenous Zimbabweans.

Rio owns a 78% stake in the Murowa mine. At present it also owns two other diamond assets: the Argyle mine in Australia, the world's premier supplier of pink diamonds, and a 60% stake in the Diavik mine in northern Canada.

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