THE Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CMZ) will next week hold an annual general meeting as focus shifts to the capital intensive sector ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
Report by Victoria Mtomba
Already pressure is piling on companies to fund polls after Finance Minister Tendai Biti hinted on introducing a new tax to fund the polls. This also comes at a time when large foreign-owned mining firms are yet to reach consensus with the government on the implementation of the indigenisation policy.
The mining sector, which according to latest government figures, accounts for 68% of total mineral exports, is expected by government to soon engage in value addition amid concerns that treasury could be losing millions of dollars each year.
The CMZ 74th annual general meeting is set for May 16-18 under the theme Where to from here: Managing and developing the mineral wealth of Zimbabwe tomorrow.
Mining firms such as Mimosa and Zimplats are yet to reach consensus on indigenisation transactions with government despite partially complying with the empowerment regulations.
Mimosa in its trading update for the first quarter said it had partialy complied with the government policy, but there was little progress in implementation. Mimosa in December came up with a sale consideration for 51% of Mimosa Holdings to indigenous parties at $550 million attributable to Aquarius based on an agreed fair market value for Mimosa Holdings of $1 078 billion.
Under the transaction, Mimosa will provide a vendor loan funding mechanism to facilitate the transaction for 10 years and bear interest of 9% annually and will be settled through waiver of the right to receive 90% of dividends due to indigenous parties.
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Zimplats, the largest platinum miner, on the other hand could be on the brink of losing a huge part of its mining ground after government announced a compulsory acquisition of the land.
The mining sector is also facing viability problems that include unavailability of working capital, old equipment and low investments.
The Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Mpofu would be the key speaker at the meeting and other speakers include World Bank chief economist for Zimbabwe Nadia Piffarreti, South Africa’s mineral economists Paul Jordan and CMZ president Winston Chitando.
The finance ministry in the 2013 national budget said mineral exports rose by 230% over the 2009-2011 period, making mining the leading export sector. The ministry stated that the average share of mining to Gross Domestic Product grew to an average of 16,9% from 2009- 2011, overtaking agriculture.
