A look at who is buying Zimbabwe mines

Bravura – Serui Platinum Concession

Bravura is to develop the Serui platinum concessions, which sit just south of the Hartley complex on the Great Dyke. Bravura is an arm of Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters’ energy firm Aiteo.

The site is not without controversy. The claims were once held by Amari Holdings, a British Virgin Islands-based company. In 2007, the company formed platinum and nickel ventures with ZMDC. However, these were cancelled by the government in 2010.

In December, Amari went to the International Court of Arbitration in Lusaka and won a bid to seize assets worth US$65.9-million as compensation from ZMDC. Zimbabwe, however, says Amari’s ZMDC deals had been approved illegally by ZMDC officials.

It was reported in 2019 that Amari had been approached by Peters to seek a settlement. Peters’ Bravura Holdings however denied the reports.

While Bravura’s parent company Aiteo is a major energy player, it has no platinum experience. The company only branched out into mining in 2017 after winning a mining licence in the DRC

Bravura holds a bank of concessions in the DRC, including copper and cobalt claims in the mineral-rich Katanga province. It also has prospects in Nigeria and in Guinea, where Peters is looking to latch on to the bauxite boom there.

For Bravura, developing the mine will be no easy task. The PGM deposits at Hartley are notoriously complex to mine, even for experienced miners.

Kamativi Lithium Concession

According to the privatisation update, the Kamativi lithium concession has been granted to “Beijing PingChang, Lintmar, Zimbabwe Defense Forces”.

Lintmar’s Zimbabwe Lithium Company (ZLC), in which Canadian-listed miner Chimata Gold Corp has a 19% shareholding, has been in a joint venture with ZMDC to extract lithium from the tailings dump at Kamativi’s abandoned tin mine.

However, a dispute with China’s Pingchang has long delayed development. Pingchang had claimed it had rights to the dump, but an arbitrator ruled in Lintmar’s favour.

It remains unclear why Pingchang is listed as one of the bidders on Kamativi. ZMDC had long said they were not interested in a partnership with Pingshang after it failed to back up an earlier partnership to develop the tailings.

In 2015, Pingchang pledged to invest US$102 million. However, three years later, ZMDC told a parliamentary committee that the company had not met this pledge. The company, ZMDC said, had only bought US$1 million worth of equipment. The equipment, in any case, turned out to be unsuitable for the mine.

The ZDF’s role at Kamativi is also not made clear.

Tsingshan – Mberengwa Lithium Concession

China’s Tsingshan Global Holdings, the world’s number one producer of stainless steel, is being granted exploration rights for lithium in Mberengwa.

In June 2018, the company signed an MoU with the government for the construction of a US$1 billion steel plant at Mvuma. After further exploration, the company was given additional access to coal, nickel and lithium deposits. Tshingshan’s local arm, Afrochine, already produces ferrochrome from its Selous plant.- NewZWire

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