New entrant to Zimbabwe PGM industry says $1bn mine to start construction in 18 months

Benedict Peters

BRAVURA Holdings, a company owned by Nigerian billionaire, Benedict Peters, said it planned to build a new platinum group metals (PGMs) mine in Zimbabwe, starting in about 18 months.

“From where we are now, we will go to resource definition, after that we will go to resource modelling, after mine development and then mine construction,” Lionel Mhlanga, Bravura’s manager in the southern African country, told Bloomberg News. “Those are all things that should happen in the next 18 months.”

Bloomberg News said the project would cost about $1bn to develop.

Bravura joins Tharisa, a Johannesburg- and London-listed chrome producer, and Russian-backed Great Dyke Investments which are also examining the feasibility of building a new PGM mine in Zimbabwe.

Bravura’s project is located on a 3,000 hectare concession in Selous which is about 80 kilometres south of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and close to existing platinum mines, said Bloomberg News. Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest PGM reserves, but investors have been deterred by frequent changes to mining laws and currency policies, it said.

Peters owns Aiteo Eastern E & P Company, Nigeria’s biggest domestic oil producer, but has little experience in mining, said the newswire. It also intends to explore mining lithium, rare earth minerals and tin in Zimbabwe, Mhlanga said.

It’s also seeking to mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper in Zambia, gold in Ghana and iron ore in Guinea, he said. Namibia and Botswana could also be options for the company, he said.