The Insider has so far not been able to track what happened to this larger investment but recent company documents show that the biggest investor in ACR, which was renamed Vast Resources this year, is Brimfell Investments.
Brimfell is owned by RAK Resources, which in turn is wholly owned by the Investment and Development Office of the Government of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirates.
These documents show that Adonis offloaded its 8.25 percent stake in ACR is 2007. It is not clear what happened to the 21.6 percent stake held by 34 account holders.
ACR did not make a single cent in its first four years of operation. It, however, had vast cash resources from floating shares. It raised more than £20 million in the first four years, so the only way investors could have made money was through selling their shares.
Although ACR was into exploration mainly in Zimbabwe and had gold projects at Pickstone and Peerless Mines as well as Giant Mine and was also into nickel and platinum, Cranswick’s eyes seemed set on the diamonds in Marange.
He had sought the services of Archibold Patsanza, a former geologist with De Beers, six months before its exclusive prospecting order lapsed. When it did, ACR pounced on the Marange diamonds through claims it obtained from the Mining Commissioner in Mutare.
Dee Beers discovered the diamonds in Marange in 2002 but did not exploit them because it was not interested in alluvial diamonds but in kimberlite diamonds. Former Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, however, disputed this and accused De Beers of looting the country’s diamonds under the guise of sampling. He said De Beers removed 100 000 tonnes of diamond ore from Marange and discovered the diamonds earlier than 2002.
“My records show that they collected more than 100 000 tonnes of diamond concentrate and this was mostly alluvial, but they say they still want to find out whether there are diamonds or not. Even up to today, I have not got a report about what happened to our samples. In Marange, it doesn’t take two minutes to find out that there are diamonds, but it took them 15 years. What hypocrisy!” he told a diamond conference in Victoria Falls in November 2012.
From June 2006, the Marange diamonds were legally owned by the two companies. ACR had registered its claims with the local mining commissioner in Mutare while De Beers’ EPO had been renewed by the Mining Affairs Board in Harare for another year.
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