Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

Prospect Resources has begun planning for its next project after shareholders on Friday approved the sale of the company’s 87% stake in Arcadia lithium mine to China’s Huayou International.

Huayou, one of the world’s biggest companies in the battery metals business, announced in December that it would buy Prospect Minerals, the Arcadia developer, for a total of US$422 million. Prospect’s share of the deal is US$377.8 million.

Prospect now plans to use part of the proceeds of the sale to explore for fresh lithium projects in Zimbabwe and abroad, chairman Mark Wheatley told shareholders at a meeting Friday.

Shareholders approved the transaction after Huayou also received all the approvals it needs from Chinese regulators to go ahead with the deal. In Zimbabwe, Prospect will inform the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency of changes to the ownership of the project, which has Special Economic Zone status.

“Prospect is pleased to advise that at the Company’s Extraordinary General Meeting held earlier today shareholders approved the Transaction by passing the resolution set out in the Notice of Meeting dated 25 January 2022 by way of a poll,” Prospect said.

Prospect says it expects the transaction to be done in late Q1 or Q2 2022.

In China, according to Prospect, all “regulatory approvals required under conditions precedent to the Transaction have been received and those conditions are now satisfied”.

Wheatly said Prospect is now looking to develop its next project.

“Prospect also plans to retain a cash balance to progress other battery and electrification metal projects in Zimbabwe, and evaluate, acquire and advance new battery and electrification metal projects globally. Prospect currently estimates it will retain between US$30 million and US$60 million,” Wheatly said.

“The team has already begun a project generation exercise focused on battery and electrification commodities, initially focused on Zimbabwe and other sub–Saharan African countries.”

In 2018, Prospect acquired Lipropeg, a set of claims near Bindura, where it has been exploring for lithium.

Newzwire

TWO Mines and Mining Development ministry workers have appeared at the Marondera Magistrates Court facing a charge of criminal abuse of office after they allegedly approved issuance of granite mining certificates to companies in Uzumba, Maramba, Pfungwe and Mutoko.

Tizah Mandawa and Zvinodaishe Mubariri, who are employed as survey and geological technicians, respectively, at the Mashonaland East ministry provincial offices in Marondera were on Friday arraigned before the courts after their alleged corrupt activities were unearthed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc).

They are accused of contravening section 31 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which prohibits people from pegging or prospecting in villages without written consent of the occupiers or that of the local authority.

The duties of the accused persons at the ministry were to conduct verification processes, which include checking on whether the ground being applied for by a particular company is open to pegging and prospecting.

Once that process is done, a report is sent to the provincial mining director Tendai Kashiri to issue registration certificates.

Allegations were that the pair deceived Kashiri in a May 2020 report and acting upon the misrepresentation, he issued certificates ME1197BM, ME1198BM, ME1199BM, ME1200BM and ME1201BN in ward 7, Mutoko Rural District Council to New Obsidian Granite Industries Company following its April 2020 application to the ministry.

They also wrote to Kashiri in January 2021 stating that they had done verification and recommended the issuance of certificates to Ndemera Mining Syndicate Company following its September 2020 application to mine on a 300-hectare area in ward 14, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe RDC.

Acting upon the misrepresentation, Kashiri issued certificates ME402 and ME403 to Heijin Mining Company on transfer.

Villagers reacted angrily leading to the cancellation of the licence.

The accused also allegedly submitted false reports to Kashiri in 2019 and recommended the issuance of certificates ME943BM, ME944BN and ME946BM to the Zimbabwe International Quarries to mine in Mutawatawa, UMP RDC.

The pair was remanded on $20 000 bail and will appear again in court on March 3.

NewsDay

ZIMBABWE continues to export its major minerals in a raw or semi-processed form, resulting in the country losing billions of dollars in potential revenue, official data has shown.

According to findings from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat), during the month of December 2021, the country exported 4 417 kilogrammes of semi-processed gold valued at US$248,1 million, compared to 2 455 kilogrammes valued at US$139,1 million in the previous month.

Data also shows that in the period under review, Zimbabwe’s main exports were semi-manufactured gold (42,0%), nickel mattes including platinum group of minerals (PGMs) (18,3%), nickel ores and concentrates (13,4%), tobacco (9,8%), ferro-chromium (3,3%), platinum in powder form (3,0%), skins and hides (1,7%).

“It was noted that major minerals produced in the country such as nickel concentrates and nickel mattes were exported in a semi-processed form, while nickel ores (including PGMs) are exported in a raw form,” the report stated.

Exporting of PGMs in their raw form comes at a time when the government has imposed a ban on raw chrome, a move meant to encourage chrome miners to invest in beneficiation facilities.

Zimbabwe is endowed with rich natural resources which are crucial ingredients for growth and development.

But, as official data shows, the country’s exports are predominantly raw and semi-finished agricultural commodities and minerals, meaning these are low-value added products as far as export earnings are concerned.

The government has been preaching value addition and beneficiation of primary commodities with little success.

Value addition involves the conversion or transformation of primary commodities into intermediate or finished goods to maximise benefit of derived value.

NewsDay

BUSINESS executives have urged government to take the resuscitation of the moribund ZiscoSteel seriously following the announcement of a new investor on Tuesday.

Government announced in a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday that Kuvimba Mining House had taken over ZiscoSteel.

During the late former President Robert Mugabe’s era, government said US$360 million was needed to revive the steel company.

Former Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) business council secretary-general Trust Chikohora told NewsDay that the collapsed steelmaker was key to the country’s economic revival plans.

“We are tired of announcements of deals which do not come to fruition when it comes to ZiscoSteel. This time, let us see implementation and Zisco working again. The revival of this company is important to the rest of the country as a lot of downstream industries will benefit from an operational ZiscoSteel,” Chikohora, who is also the past president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), said.

He said there had been several promises to revive ZiscoSteel, including the Essar deal involving an Indian company and another deal with the Chinese which did not yield anything.

Investigations on the collapse of ZiscoSteel had pointed to mismanagement, corruption and looting by government officials and top employees of the company.

Former ZiscoSteel chairperson Gift Mugano said government should learn from experiences in the operations of the steel giant to ensure its
revival.

“At some point when ZiscoSteel was still capacitated before its closure, there were fights among ministries because Zisco is a component which is aligned with the Ministry of Mines. You recall when I was there as chairman, there were certain challenges when certain procedures were violated, where Zisco was given permission to take over coking ovens,” he said.

“What needs to be taken seriously by government is to learn from past experiences. This kind of rash approach to a State-owned enterprise must not be allowed to continue. Clearly, we cannot ignore history concerning the corruption around Zisco.

“The technology at Zisco came from Germany, and we are now in the fourth industrial revolution, where things have changed to digital technology and the state of technology there (Zisco) is quite outdated.”

Mugano said government needed to look into the issue of machinery before throwing US$360 million into Zisco.

Economist Victor Bhoroma said the government promise to resuscitate Zisco could be an election gimmick.

“It is not the first time that such promises have been made, especially around elections. Early in 2010, Zisco invited a bidder for a 64% stake at the Kwekwe and Redcliff plant and many investors over the years have been invited but nothing materialised.”

Newsday

The palladium price jumped on Thursday as Russian forces invaded Ukraine after President Vladimir Putin authorized what he called a special military operation.

Spot palladium added 2.7% to $2,549.01 an ounce, having earlier reached its highest since August 2021.

Moscow-based Nornickel is the world’s largest producer of palladium and platinum, both of which are used in catalytic converters to clean car exhaust fumes.

Russia produced 2.6 million troy ounces of palladium last year, or 40% of global mine production, and 641,000 ounces of platinum, or about 10% of total mine production.

While it was “still too early” to tell if supply issues would materialize, “if we see a set of sanctions that reduce financing and free flow of the material to the rest of the world, we could see a significant tightening of conditions for palladium probably in the not too distant future,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.

Platinum group metals could see a “pretty significant rally” with palladium likely to reach record highs seen last year over $3,000 an ounce, Melek added.

It’s a sharp reversal in fortune for palladium, which was the worst-performing major commodity in 2021. The impact of the semiconductor shortage on car production soured the demand outlook, causing prices to plummet in the second half of the year. Only iron ore, hit by China’s property market crisis, and silver have come close in terms of losses.

Shares in mining companies with operations in Russia were among the first to feel the impact of Moscow’s wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, while oil topped $105 a barrel and investors rushed to buy gold and other safe havens.

Mining