Zimbabwe’s military has disposed of its stake in a $4
billion platinum joint venture with Russian investors, President Emmerson
Mnangagwa, has said.
Mnangagwa revealed this in an interview with Bloomberg in
Mozambique during the just-ended US-Africa Business Summit, where he sought to
appease the Americans who are insisting on political reforms as a precondition
for the scrapping of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera).
The law specifically compels US executive directors of
international financial institutions to oppose and vote against any extension
of loans, credit, or guarantees to Zimbabwe, which is in desperate need of
fresh credit lines to kickstart its ailing economy.
Recent reports suggested that the military’s involvement
has been the main reason why the project has failed to take off since it was
commissioned in 2014 amid
much fanfare as the then president, Robert Mugabe, sought
to spite Washington by aligning with Moscow.
The military, through the Zimbabwe Defence Industries,
which is under sanctions, and Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)
together hold 30% of the
joint venture, known as Great Dyke Investments, through a
company they control, Pen East (Pty) Ltd.
The Russian consortium consists of VI Holdings, Rostec and
Vnesheconombank, while 20% is held by undisclosed Zimbabwean investors.
“They have moved out, we have removed the Zimbabwe Defence
Forces. It is now owned by a private company,” Mnangagwa said.
“We moved the army out, which had initially been part of
the shareholding.
“So it is now 50/50, the other 50% is owned by the Russians
and the other 50% by a local Zimbabwean company, which bought out the army.”
He did not give any further detail, only stating that the
deal was consummated “a few weeks ago”.
According to the company’s feasibility study report, the
mineral resource potential at the Great Dyke site is about 45 million ounces
(1,400 t) of PGM, which
is comparable with the largest deposits at the Bushveld
area in South Africa, as well as with such deposits in the Norilsk ore region
in Russia.
Zimbabwe is home to the world’s second largest deposits of
platinum, but the country’s output remains depressed as companies find it
difficult to set up and
start operating because of a highly-volatile policy
environment.
The Anglo American-owned Unki is one of three platinum
miners already operating in the southern African nation.
Last year, the country scrapped local ownership laws which
limited foreign shareholding in platinum and diamond ventures to 49% as part of
mining sector
reforms to help inject much-needed foreign capital.
In April, government hinted that two new investors would
develop separate platinum mining projects in the mineral-rich Mhondoro-Ngezi
area, in addition to Cypriot investor Karo Resources, which is already working
on a $4,2 billion mining project in the same area. Standard
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