Rio Tinto's diamond cut

RIO Tinto's Zimbabwean subsidiary Murowa Diamonds has reportedly ceded 51 per cent of its equity to comply with a new law giving local blacks majority shares in foreign companies.

''Murowa Diamonds wrote to us yesterday saying they have given up 51 per cent [of] shares and these would be given to our people,'' the state-owned Herald newspaper quoted Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere as saying.

Zimbabwe gave foreign companies until September 25 to submit plans to sell 51 per cent of their shares to the black community by 2015.