"This allows us to talk about the possibility of setting up a refinery in Las Cristinas and, furthermore, we are obliged, by international conventions, to put under the control of the state diamond production, because it is difficult to control the extraction and marketing of this indiscriminate ore in the country.

The international conventions he referred to would be those that restrict diamond sales to prevent the sale of conflict diamonds. There have been suggestions that some conflict diamonds are sanitized by passing them off as VZ diamonds. VZ has not so far fully cooperated with procedures to certify country of origin for the diamonds it sells.