Ishemunyoro Chingwere
Government is this month expected to announce successful investors for joint venture partnerships with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) in six of its mining assets for which the state entity invited expressions of interest, a Cabinet minister has said.
In February ZMDC tendered for investment into six of its mines, which have been lying idle or were being underutilised as Government seeks to make maximum use of the country’s resources.
Among the mines are two gold rich deposits of Jena Gold Mine and Evington Gold Mine as well as Lynx Graphite Mine, Sandawana Mine, Mbungu and Gwayi SG.
An initial 151 investors had been short-listed for the six assets but Government has now done its due diligence on selected investors who are due for announcement next month before commencement of work.
The due diligence exercise included visits by Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to host countries of investors as Government moved in to make sure it avoids a situation where speculators with no capacity to utilise end up getting title and rights to key mining assets.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Harare Agricultural Show recently, Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando, said the process took longer than was expected as Government wanted to make sure it signs with worthy investors befitting the capital intensity of the projects.
“They are at different stages of being rolled out,” said Minister Chitando.
“You will find out what has happened is they (ZMDC) did their shortlist, but we are talking of big projects, so the due diligence before starting the work took longer than was expected.
The Minister said they have had cases where some investors say one thing on paper and yet on the ground they don’t have capacity to deliver.
“So we have had to send teams to those companies, visit, and do like an audit of their credentials, audit of their track record and their capacity so that we don’t have a repeat of what has happened before where someone comes and sign, when we want them to perform nothing happens.
“But we are ready now and in September (this month) we will get going,” he said.