Zimbabwe may scrap mine ownership rules

Zimbabwe may lift a requirement that companies mining metals or diamonds must be at least 51%-owned by black citizens of the country, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.

Zimbabwe, with the world’s second-biggest platinum reserves, may lift a requirement that companies mining the metal or diamonds must be at least 51%owned by black citizens of the country, President Emmerson Mnangagwa says.

Mnangagwa, who became president in November after Robert Mugabe resigned under pressure from the military, has announced that the ownership requirement on all other minerals will be abolished. The government needs to assess its platinum and diamond industries more carefully, he says.

Platinum and diamonds are key exports for an economy that has halved in size since 2000 after a land-reform programme slashed shipments of crops such as tobacco, maize and roses.

While the world’s two biggest platinum companies, SA’s Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings, operate mines in Zimbabwe, they have slowed investment plans because of concern over the ownership law. Both companies have had to cede part of their concessions to the government.

“I only excluded diamonds and platinum for now. We do not have a real or deep-rooted or well-interrogated policy on diamonds or platinum,” Mnangagwa said last week. “Down the line, when we are satisfied that this can also go into the open basket, we will do so.”

Exploitation of diamonds has been more opaque, with the discovery of the giant Marange field in the east of the country leading to an initial rush of artisanal miners, followed by groups led by closely held Chinese and South African companies.

Human rights activists have accused Zimbabwe’s military of smuggling gems out of the country and said little benefit had accrued to state finances.

In addition to platinum and diamonds, Zimbabwe also has sizeable deposits of gold, chrome, lithium, coal and iron ore.