MINES and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu says the government will not relent on its resolve to repossess special mining grants from potential investors holding on to claims for speculative purposes.
NDUDUZO TSHUMA
In an interview at a tobacco field day at Green River Farm in Nyamandlovu owned by Shandu Gumede over the weekend, Mpofu said some individuals had approached the government claiming to have investors, only to use the mining claims for speculative purposes.
“There are people who were given special mining grants, but are not using them. So we will be visiting them in the coming weeks to repossess those claims,” Mpofu said.
“It is unfortunate that most of them are indigenous, but they are not making any effort to develop the concessions. When they apply, they tell you they have investors, but afterwards, they start speculating. No mineral land is for sale. If you can’t develop it, you have to return it. But we have seen some people speculating.”
Mpofu said there were many investors interested in partnering with the government in coal mining.
Last year, the government issued 20 special coal grants, but most of the projects were yet to take off.
According to a research by consulting firm Frost&Sullivan, Zimbabwe has coal reserves that will “approximately last the next 200 years at a production output of 5 000 tonnes per annum”. These coal reserves could be used as feedstock for coal-powered thermal power stations.
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Coal production in Zimbabwe is set to decline by at least 600 000 tonnes in 2012 from 2,56 million tonnes produced in 2011.
The Chamber of Mines estimates that the country’s coal mining industry requires up to $5 billion to recapitalise.
At peak production in the mid-1990s, the country produced over 5 million tonnes of coal, but since the turn of the millennium, annual output has been hovering between two and three million tonnes. The government last week formally acquired 28 000 hectares of land belonging to Zimplats.
Mpofu had previously announced that the government was repossessing unutilised mining ground from Zimplats with the aim of renting it out to new investors.
He said the land held by the mining giant would be reallocated to five potential investors in a bid to widen revenue generated from the white metal.
Meanwhile, Mpofu, who is also Umguza Zanu PF MP, has pledged to build tobacco auction floors in Matabeleland North and initiate tobacco farming projects to motivate farmers in the semi-arid region to shift to the golden leaf.
He said he also plans to build tobacco barns that would assist local farmers interested in tobacco farming.
Gumede, who said she ventured into tobacco production by accident, planted tobacco on four hectares of her field and is expected to harvest up to four tonnes of the gold leaf per hectare.
She is the second after another female farmer in Umguza, to venture into tobacco production.
Mpofu also disclosed he will start a chicken project with 100 000 birds.
