RHA Tungsten has concluded a shareholder and management agreement with the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund (NIEEF) to explore tungsten in Hwange.
By Victoria Mtomba
RHA owns Premier-RHA Tungsten Project in northwest Zimbabwe.
Under the agreement, the NIEEF will hold 51% of the issued share capital of RHA.
ZimDiv Holdings Limited, which in turn controls the remaining equity in RHA, is appointed as the manager of the project for an initial five-year term. In an telephone interview yesterday, National Indigenisation Economic and Empowerment Board (NIEEB) chief executive officer Wilson Gwatiringa said the deal was one of the investments that would make NIEEF a shareholder under the indigenisation laws.
He said NIEEF was also a shareholder in Blanket Mine and PPC Cement.
“We are doing the same with Tungsten (Private) Limited and it’s still an exploration venture, but it will end up as a normal mining venture. The fund has assets, this is what is used for these transactions,” Gwatiringa said.
Premier African Minerals chief executive officer George Roach said RHA was responsible for its own development costs and eased the burden on Premier as well as broaden the financial resources to develop the project into a low-capex tungsten mine in the near future.
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RHA was responsible for its own funding and neither Premier nor NIEEF shall be under any obligation to contribute to its exploration and development costs.
Under the agreement, Premier will provide interim assistance for on-going operations until alternative finance was in place.
“Once RHA has obtained sufficient committed finance to enable it to develop and construct the mine and the project has achieved commercial production, Premier will issue to NIEEF such number of new ordinary shares,” Roach said.
