South African mining companies excelling in Zimbabwe

As Zimbabwe is going through tough economic times with foreign investors hesitant in getting into one of the world richest mineral resource countries some South African companies are doing extremely well on the Mining front. Mainly Platinum companies the listed below are excelling on Zimbabwean soil.

Tharisa

Tharisa stands to benefit following the declaration of a special economic zone (SEZ) that will benefit Karo Zimbabwe, in which Tharisa has a 27% indirect stake. The SEZ covers special mining grants issued to Karo Zimbabwe in the Great Dyke and will see Karo’s platinum mining project entitled to numerous fiscal incentives.

Impala Platinum (Implats)

Zimplats owns an 87% stake in Zimbabwean company Zimplats. Zimplats chairman Sydney Mufamadi (who was a South African government minister from 1994 to 2008) in late October was quite upbeat and wrote in the Zimplats annual report that the future of the company remained bright despite the challenging environment. However, the devaluation of the Zimbabwe currency against the US dollar resulted in Zimplats recognising a net exchange loss of US$20 million for the year ended June 2019. Nevertheless, Zimplats reported a profit of US$144 million for the year ended June this year, which was its best result in more than four financial years.

Mimosa

Mimosa, a 50:50 venture between Implats and Sibanye-Stillwater, is also bearing up well and the mine reported a 21% hike in gross profit to R773 million for the year ended June. Johan Theron, an Implats spokesperson, says that the business environment in Zimbabwe had become “extremely challenging” over the past eighteen months. All the metal the platinum mining industry produces gets exported and paid for in US dollars, and these hard currency earnings have sheltered the sector from the storm, he added.

Anglo American Platinum

Anglo American Platinum owns the Unki platinum mine in Zimbabwe. Unki seems to be thriving as it reported record platinum metal production for the half-year ending June and operating profit for the same six months was R488 million up 15% from the prior half-year.

Extract from Business Insider