The Sunday Mail
MINES and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando implored United Kingdom potential investors to seize mining investment opportunities, particularly in the resuscitation of mothballed Government entities.
Minister Chitando said this at a mining investment round-table in London, organised by the Financial Markets Indaba in partnership with Thompson Reuters.
The meeting ran under theme ‘Zimbabwe: mining listings — the new chapter’.
Minister Chitando told the lenders and potential investors at the conference that the country now has investor friendly policies after tweaking the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.
Government has removed the 51/49 shareholding requirement that favoured locals.
Now, foreign investors can own 100 percent of their projects, except in the platinum and diamond sectors.
However, investors keen on setting up value addition and beneficiation plants for the diamond and platinum sectors can still wholly own their projects.
The much anticipated Diamond Policy is expected to shape diamond mining in the country going forward, in terms of ownership patterns.
Minister Chitando said Zimbabwe is ready to engage the international investor community mainly in light of opportunities in the reviving the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)’s mothballed operations.
He said joint ventures with ZMDC have so far proven to be successful.
In February this year, Government announced that it was looking for investors to resuscitate Jena gold mine in Silobela, Elvington gold mine in Chegutu and the Sandawana Emerald-Tantalite-Lithium project in Mberengwa.
Sandawana mine is a top quality emerald miner, which stopped operations in 2011 due to loss of its traditional markets.
Minister Chitando said they are upgrading the ministry’s capability to enable efficient functioning and processing of mining formalities such as claims and licensing.
Streamlining such processes would provide basis for increased production.
He also said Government is working towards increasing gold production from 24,8 tonnes last year to 100 tonnes per annum in the near future.
The round-table hosted several other notable speakers, including Rhona O’Connell, head of metals research and forecasts for Thomson Reuters; Executive Chairman of Contago Holding Plc Mr Roy Pitchford and the country’s Deputy Ambassador in the United Kingdom, Cecil Chinenere.
The Financial Markets Indaba intends to continue convening such platforms to promote investments in Zimbabwe.
Emergent Capital Management, host of the mining roundtable through subsidiary Financial Markets Indaba, is an investment advisory and private management firm with offices in Harare, Johannesburg and London.
It publishes multi-asset investment research on Zimbabwe, including credit, equities, real assets and other assets on Thomson Reuters, and S&P platforms. – Ends
