AFGEM

Kimble says Afgem is concerned about the community.

At a meeting in April, Afgem offered the Mererani community a grant of $25,000 for the town development fund.

The animosity has spilled across borders with the miners accusing Afgem of "waging a negative campaign against them abroad" by calling their gems fake.

Early this year, some local dealers who had travelled to the US and South Africa to sell their gems had to endure accusations of selling fake stones "since it is only Afgem that was mining the gemstones".

"If you take gemstones not branded with the Afgem logo abroad, it is like you have either stolen them or they are fake," moaned one miner.

Kimble denies seeking to create a monopoly and says Afgem has stopped the branding.

Afgem is also accused of flooding the market with tanzanite, sending prices tumbling by as much as 60%.

Afgem, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Junior Mining Board, is also alleged to have twisted the truth about discoveries of tanzanite.

The chairman of Afgem Tanzania, Ami Mpugwe, who was Tanzania's former ambassador to South Africa, says the small miners claims are untrue.

Such is the mineral wealth that companies like Afgem and others are keen to become major players.

"Personally, I would like to be very honest with you, by confirming that it will NOT BE POSSIBLE [his own emphasis] to expel Afgem from Block C," Njoolay says matter of factly.

He will never expel Afgem unless a court of law says so, because "doing so would be tantamount to retracting government policies, encouraging anarchy instead of the rule of law, and setting a very bad precedent for other investors elsewhere in the country.