The Sunday Mail
Loucas Pouroulis
I fell in love with Zimbabwe when I visited in 1977. It’s a lovely country. At the time, I scouted for investment in Bindura, a rich mining area.
However, nothing much materialised.
We later started pushing for a platinum project; that was around 2006. Not much happened either, and promise only began to show in 2010.
A lot of people, among them ministers, were trying to stop the project.
It has taken a lot of hard work to reach the signing of a US$4,2 billion platinum mining deal.
Basically, Karo Resources has been in Zimbabwe for eight years as we tried to get the project on track.
There were challenges, especially with the previous Minister of Mines, Mr Walter Chidhakwa.
It was difficult.
Bureaucracy, red tape were everywhere.
Some people did not want us to move forward, but the past is not something one wants to dwell on. What matters is that we are here now and moving forward.
The deal has been signed and we are happy about the future.
Karo Resources is ready to start work. We have geologists here, already on the ground.
Some logistics have been in place for the past 10 years. A full-fledged office will be opened in Ngezi.
This could be a fully-integrated world class mining programme complete with chrome mining and power generation.
We believe we can achieve production targets within five years.
Potentially, the project could grow Zimbabwe’s GDP by 20 percent. Some 15 000 people will be employed directly.
It means the country will embark on an incredible trajectory growth.
I thank everyone who helped consummate this project.
We tried to invest money in Zimbabwe before, but we did not agree with the previous leaders.
Mr Loucus Pouroulis heads Karo Resources, a Cypriot giant which last week signed Zimbabwe’s biggest mining deal in history. He shared these views with The Sunday Mail’s Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi in Harare last week.
