David Brown

Having tired of the flak that must come your way running a thermal coal business - especially one looking for money - David Brown returned to ‘greener’ and more familiar pastures in January 2020. That’s when he resigned from MC Mining to focus full time on Zimbabwe’s platinum group metals (PGM) sector via Great Dyke Investments (GDI), a company he has chaired since 2019. GDI is hoping to raise $550m in finance to build the Darwendale PGM project, a venture slated to produce 300,000 ounces a year in PGMs and gold in its first phase. This is no mean feat considering Zimbabwe’s parlous economics.

Brown is also heading Kuvimba Mining House, which has a stake in GDI, but which is primarily focused on resuscitating gold mines formerly owned by Metallon Gold. These include some familiar mine names such as Freda Rebecca and Shamva. The plan is to take production from about 90,000 oz/year today to 150,000 oz/year - but that will require $150m in new investment. Kuvimba, which also owns Bindura Nickel Corporation, is backed and controlled via Zimbabwean government pension funds and its sovereign wealth fund whilst Brown’s company, Quorus Management Services, holds about a one-third stake. A listing for Kuvimba on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange might be a possibility in a couple of years, or three.

The emergence of Brown in Zimbabwe’s affairs is not a surprise: he was heavily involved in negotiations with the government years ago whilst CEO of Impala Platinum. It’s another demonstration of how the Zimbabwean government has turned again to its mining sector to help breathe new life into its struggling economy. President Emmerson Mnangagwa doesn’t hav