KPCS meeting closes

7th June 2013 By: Natasha Odendaal - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A review during a week-long intersessional meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) acknowledged the significant impact made by the organisation on the global trade in rough diamonds.

The KPCS meeting, chaired by South Africa this year, was held in Kimberley from June 4 to 7 and had commemorated the organisation’s ten-year anniversary under the theme ‘Ten years of stemming the flow of conflict diamonds’.

“The intersessional meeting had a dual purpose. The first was to commemorate the ten-year anniversary and the second to ensure that it continues to effectively fulfill the role for which it was created,” said Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu on Friday.

Representatives of governments, the diamond industry and civil society reviewed the processes and functions of the KPCS to ensure that it remained relevant and credible in curbing the illegal flow of rough diamonds.

The groups, which had examined the findings of the past year’s review missions, had also tabled the possibility of further “review missions” to Côte d’Ivoire and the Central African Republic, besides others, in efforts to ascertain compliance.

The review aimed to find ways of strengthening the effectiveness of the KPCS to ensure that diamond trade was not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments, she commented.

A plenary meeting of the KPCS later this year would consider the recommendations gathered at the intersessional meeting.