[miningmx.com] — IMPALA Platinum’s Zimbabwe unit is committed to a $500m mine expansion, although the board will review progress in May amid mine take-over talks, the deputy chairperson said on Thursday.
Foreign mining firms which include Rio Tinto and Anglo Platinum are concerned about Zimbabwe’s plans to transfer majority ownership in foreign firms to local people in a country with the world’s second-largest platinum reserves after South Africa.
“We’ve got to a point where that’s (stopping expansion) not really an option,” Zimplats Holdings deputy chairperson Muchadeyi Masunda told Reuters on the sidelines of the NG Mining conference.
“As a board we are going to have to review the current situation in the light of what’s going on at the moment,” he said about the May meeting.
He said players in Zimbabwe’s mining industry need to give input into proposed mining law amendments that have spooked investors. Mining is a key foreign exchange earner for a country seeking to rebuild following an economic meltdown blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s policies.
“The most important thing is constructive dialogue,” Masunda said.
He said Zimplats, which holds around 165 million ounces of platinum resources in the Great Dyke region of Zimbabwe, is keen to take advantage of increased global platinum demand and good prices as it seeks to become a one million ounce a year company.
The company expects its Ngezi phase 2 expansion project to lift annual platinum output to 270,000 ounces from 180,000 ounces once it is completed in 2013.
“We are still very bullish about the future of our operations and should, if the investment climate is good… (then) the goal of one million ounces can be attained in the not too distant future,” said Masunda, who is also mayor of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.
Masunda said he hoped a tax dispute with the Zimbabwean government would be resolved soon.
Zimplats already paid $23.5m the state said it was owed, but tax authorities revised their assessment and more than doubled the amount owed to $56m.
“We would like an expeditious resolution,” Masunda said.
