LOUCAS Pouroulis, head of Karos Resources, has signed an agreement with the Zimbabwean government to build a $4.2bn platinum mine and refinery, which will include an integrated coal-fired power plant, and produce 1.2 million ounces a year of platinum group metals by 2023, said Reuters.
Citing Pouroulis, Reuters said the mining property would be cited in the Mhondoro-Ngezi platinum belt, west of Harare, where Impala Platinum Holdings has operations. It would employ 15,000 people when fully implemented.
“Zimbabwe is open for business and whoever stands in the way, hurting business in this country, will fall. It is not business as usual anymore, things have to change,” said Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe president, said at the signing ceremony. The project was first mooted six years ago but had been held back by government red tape and “other unnamed vested interests, which are corrupt interests,” he said.
