De Beers-Ril Team Forced To Abandon Mining Survey

The demonstrators, which included supporters of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister S C Shukla, held banners saying "Go back De Beers" and even manhandled the members.

The technical team, which had flown in to inspect the proposed mining site, had to catch the same flight back to Nagpur and then to Mumbai.

Commenting on the treatment accorded to De Beers, a South African mining company, Deputy South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is in Delhi on an official visit, yesterday dismissed the incident as one of little importance.

"India has supported the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa for years ... Incidents like this are hiccups in any relationship," Mbeki told mediapersons.

 

According to an agency report, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has said that his government will provide protection to officials of multinational companies who wish to visit the Devbhog area for collecting samples of diamond deposits.

The RIL-De Beers Consolidated joint venture project, in which both companies hold 50 cent equity each, was granted permission by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board on October 18 this year to undertake diamond prospecting in Madhya Pradesh. Reliance and De Beers propose to set up a $30 million joint venture in the country.

The proposal had got stuck for more than two months in anticipation of the new mining policy guidelines announced by the government in October.

The new guidelines have formulated the criteria for foreign investment in gold and diamond mining.