Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

A man arrested on Saturday for smuggling gold valued at R11 million at OR Tambo airport has been granted bail by a Kempton park court in South Africa.

The alleged gold smuggler named in court as Tashinga Nyasha Masinire was granted R100,000 bail with stringent conditions.

Masinire conditions prohibit him from departing South Africa and he has to report at the nearest police station three times weekly.

He was remanded to July 1, 2021.

LITHIUM exploration underway at Fort Rixon, Matabeleland South is set to heighten Government’s measures of using the mining sector as leverage to reach its target of a US$12 billion economy in the extractive industry.

The Government recently gave an Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) to mining giant Premier African Minerals to commence the exploration process on lithium and tantalum. When mining eventually starts, it is expected that the mineral will rake in US$1, 4 billion in eight years.

Fort Rixon is largely known as a gold mining area but the subsequent discovery of other minerals in the belt, has necessitated the need for more investment. The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has positioned parts of Fort Rixon, Gwanda and Insiza as prime areas for the mining of lithium among other minerals such as bismuth, arsenic, chrome and nickel.

Envisaged mining of lithium is expected not only to open the economy but to be an example of a public-private partnership to bring investment in the country, according to Mines and Mining Development Minister, Winston Chitando.

“The exploration of lithium by Premier African Minerals started in March. This is one mineral that is going to be a game-changer in the country. The Government is on a path to increase the mining sector’s contribution to the economy and availing such investments will bear fruit,” said the minister in an interview last Friday.

The minister who is on a charm offensive to reach out to would-be investors, told Sunday News Business that there has been an overwhelming response for lithium.

“Of course the responses to our call for investment have been encouraging. Zimbabwe is going to be the next biggest supplier of lithium. Lithium is in demand in the automotive and mobile phone industries as it is used in batteries to improve efficiency. The mineral is of high demand to electric car manufacturers worldwide.”

A statement from Premier African Minerals on the start of the lithium exploration process, indicates that the company is committed to bringing value.

“I am deeply appreciative of the Zimbabwe government for the granting of this substantial EPO and Premier will reciprocate with mobilisation for the commencement of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the Zulu deposit, which has an estimated completion time of 14 months, ” Premier African Mines chief executive Mr George Roach said on the company’s website.

Minister Chitando said successful ventures in lithium mining will boost the Government’s confidence to have the sector achieve US$12 billion. Mining is currently contributing about eight percent of GDP. An average of 6,2 percent was recorded to the GDP between 2009 and 2015 and 8,4 percent from 2016 to 2018, figures from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development show.

Meanwhile, Minister Chitando said the Government was not backtracking on its “use it or lose it” policy in mines.

“Those who are not fully utilising mining claims have to know that they will eventually lose. The goal is to maximise production by working with competent and progressive mines,” he said.

The Sunday News

Researchers from The University of Western Australia, Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Exeter have developed a new mining technique that uses electric fields to extract metals from hard rock ore.

The technique could replace the traditional method of digging which results in significant costs to the environment.

Digging methods are currently used in 99 per cent of mining activity, often resulting in significant environmental degradation and huge quantities of solid waste.

Global estimates of waste are of the order of 100 gigatonnes per year, significantly larger than any other form of waste generated by humans.

The new technique is published in Science Advances. It is now being further developed and refined with support from the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia.

Professor Henning Prommer from UWA’s School of Earth Sciences and CSIRO said the technique worked by installing electrodes within the ore body and applying electric currents that could induce the transport of electrically charged metals such as copper through rocks by a process called electromigration.

“The metals are extracted within the ore body, instead of the traditional means of having to dig them out and milling huge amounts of material, a technique which traditionally has placed huge pressure on the environment,” Professor Prommer said.

“Traditional methods of excavating ore material result in a large amount of solid waste brought to the Earth’s surface which needs to be disposed of, whereas this new method dramatically decreases wastage”.

Professor Henning Prommer

Professor Andy Fourie from UWA’s School of Engineering said the new technique held immense possibilities.

“It will not only improve mining outcomes, it will help us shift towards a more sustainable way of mining,” Professor Fourie said.

The researchers have tested the technique in laboratory experiments and through computer modelling.

After successfully extracting copper from some very tight rock samples they are confident the idea will also work in the field, not only for copper but also for a wide range of other metals.

“This is really exciting because we can use intermittent power sources such as solar and wind to extract minerals,” Professor Prommer said.

Source: University of Western Australia

Imagine winning a million-dollar lottery but instead of rolling around in opulence and glamor for eternity, you plunge into perpetual poverty.

Oil has been referred to as “the black gold”. It is a priceless resource with a huge impact on a nation’s economic, environmental and social structure. The discovery of oil is capable of altering the dreams of many a country at national and community level. Upon the discovery of oil and gas, developing countries usually look to foreign investment from developed countries. By so doing they risk undermining their permanent sovereignty but proceed nonetheless because a developing country that has just struck oil often lacks the expertise, technology and financial capacity to run a capital intensive oil and gas extraction and production project.

The discovery of oil and gas, therefore, frequently forces sovereign states to enter into host government agreements with capable multinational corporations. These agreements may take the form of service agreements, joint-venture agreements or production sharing agreements. Properly managed, the oil industry is capable of spawning a host of advantages, including but not limited to, lucrative employment opportunities for local communities, attraction of public and private international project financing institutions, transfer of expertise and skills to the local people, more revenue and development of infrastructure.

However, in other countries the very discovery of this black gold has led to the collapse of the economic, social and political fabric. 

This strange phenomenon is known as the “resource curse” or “the paradox of plenty”. This theory basically denotes that countries that are rich in natural resources tend to have poor economic growth, higher poverty levels, political conflict and decaying social structures as compared to countries with little or no natural resources.

Venezuela is the perfect embodiment of the resource curse. Despite having the largest oil reserves in the world (over 300 billion barrels in reserves), the majority of its people continue to wallow in abject poverty. 

Oil wells have also been in the middle of conflict as recently observed in Mozambique and as witnessed, not too long ago, in Syria and Iraq where ISIS successfully assumed control over oil fields and started producing oil for trade on international markets. 

Other notable examples of oil driven conflict include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude pipeline bombing in the skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as the sabotaging of the Royal-Dutch Shell Company’s pipelines by insurgents in Nigeria.

In countries like Nigeria and Ghana the curse has reared its ugly head in the form of devastating environmental impact with a huge economic effect on the local people. In the Nigerian communities of Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo as well as the western region of Ghana, local residents have complained of serious air and water pollution which has suffocated their traditional economic activities like fishing and farming. This is not surprising because oil extraction can turn into an environmental curse due to oil spills, gas flaring or hydraulic fracturing (fracking) resulting in air and water pollution. To the host communities, the discovery of oil has become a curse instead of a blessing, which should not be the case.

The resource case has also been linked to the “Dutch disease”. This emanates from the situation in the Netherlands around 1959 where the discovery and subsequent exploitation of oil and gas led to currency appreciation and a crumbling of other sectors of the economy as they could not co-exist with the powerful and valuable black gold.

Gloom, however, is not always the case. Progressive models have led to proper development and utilisation of the resource. Countries like Norway and Canada have successfully circumvented all these negative impacts associated with the discovery of oil through efficient, transparent and effective economic planning. 

The Saudi Arabian government owned company, Saudi Aramco, is arguably the most profitable company in the world. World class infrastructure is ubiquitous in the oil rich United Arab Emirates. These models can be replicated to the extent there are positives and lessons to be learnt. One of the steps that may be incorporated is the idea of effective Environmental Impact Assessments at inception of investment ideas.

Environmental Impact Assessments

At every stage of oil and gas exploration, exploitation and production it is always important to factor in public participation through Environmental Impact Assessment procedures (“EIAs”). EIAs are an international environmental law practice that emerged through instruments like the Rio Declaration, ESPOO, the UNCLOS convention and the Aarhus Convention. Cases like the Pulp Mills arbitration between Argentina and Uruguay have inducted this principle into customary international law. In terms of this principle, the public must be informed and consulted concerning proposed activities that may have a significant impact on their livelihood.

On the investor’s part, due diligence helps to mitigate the effects of the activity or may be used as a defence in future litigation. This has become even more important in light of the advancement in jurisprudence by the Dutch and English courts in cases such as the Akpan v Royal Dutch Shell plc/SPDC (Nigeria) and The Bodo Community v The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. In these cases, it was held that an investor can be sued in its home-country (Netherlands/UK) by local communities (Nigerians) on the basis of the law of the host state (Nigeria). Shell has since agreed to pay hefty compensation packages of around £55m to compensate aggrieved Nigerians from the affected Bodo community. For the government, EIA may be a portrayal of democracy, good governance and fulfilment of state responsibility, while for the concerned citizens it signifies empowerment of their voices.

It is commendable to note that Zimbabwe has also domesticated this principle in its legislative framework. Section 73 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the constitutional right to environmental protection which is in line with the Paris Agreement. Further, the Mines and Minerals Act (s159) as well as the Environmental Management Act (s99ff) contain provisions that provide for the procedure and requirements of proper EIA. The framework already exists and simply needs to be complied with.

It should never be the case that the discovery of the rich black gold spells doom and suffering for the people of a host state. The so-called curse can be avoided by a coming together of all stakeholders. All other sectors of the economy can still function viably. The discovery of oil, if that be the case, should be a blessing and not a curse.

Takudzwa Takunda Mutevedzi is a lawyer. He is currently studying towards an LLM degree in Oil, Gas and Mining Law at an energy University in the United Kingdom. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on [email protected] or Takudzwa Takunda Mutevedzi on LinkedIn.