Summary
Ethnic and political conflict developed into open civil war in Côte d’Ivoire in 2002,
leading to a de facto partitioning of the country into the government-controlled south and
the rebel-controlled north. Côte d’Ivoire’s two main diamond mining areas, Séguéla
and Tortiya, are located in the north, under what was, until recently, rebel-controlled territory.
In an effort to prevent proceeds from diamond mining from funding the conflict, the United Nations
(UN) placed an embargo on the export of rough diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire in 2005.
That same year, the Kimberley Process (KP), the international initiative charged with stemming
the flow of conflict diamonds, acted to enforce this ban by adopting the Moscow Resolution on
Côte d’Ivoire, which contained measures to prevent the infiltration of Ivorian diamonds
into the legitimate global rough diamond trade. Though under scrutiny by the international
community, diamond mining activities continued in Côte d’Ivoire, with artisanal miners
exploiting both alluvial deposits in fluvial systems and primary kimberlitic dike deposits.
However, because of the embargo, there has been no official record of diamond production
since the conflict began in 2002. This lack of production statistics represents a significant
data gap and hinders efforts by the KP to understand how illicitly produced diamonds may be
entering the legitimate trade.
This study presents the results of a multiyear effort to monitor the
diamond mining activities of Côte d’Ivoire’s two main diamond mining
areas, Séguéla and Tortiya. An innovative approach was developed
that integrates data acquired from archival reports and maps,
high-resolution satellite imagery, and digital terrain modeling to
assess the total diamond endowment of the Séguéla and Tortiya deposits
and to calculate annual diamond production from 2006 to 2013. On the
basis of currently available data, this study estimates that a total
of 10,100,000 carats remain in Séguéla and a total of 1,100,000 carats
remain in Tortiya. Production capacity was calculated for the two study
areas for the years 2006–2010 and 2012–2013. Production capacity was
found to range from between 38,000 carats and 375,000 carats in Séguéla
and from 13,000 carats and 20,000 carats in Tortiya. Further, this
study demonstrates that artisanal mining activities can be successfully
monitored by using remote sensing and geologic modeling techniques.
The production capacity estimates presented here fill a significant
data gap and provide policy makers, the UN, and the KP with
important information not otherwise available.
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First posted November 5, 2013
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