Great Dyke sells stake to Fossil

GREAT Dyke Investments, a Russianbacked project planning to build Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine, has sold a 4,4% stake to Fossil Mines Ltd as Covid-19 disrupted fundraising for the venture.

Fossil, owned by Zimbabwe’s Obey Chimuka, will invest US$30 million in the Darwendale project, through a combination of cash and services, including for engineering, procurement and construction. That leaves tycoon Vitaliy Machitski’s Vi Holding and Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining Venture Ltd each with a 47,8% stake. The sale values Great Dyke Investments at US$680 million.

Great Dyke Investments Chief Executive Officer Alex Ivanov said the coronavirus pandemic has delayed project fundraising, which was originally due to be completed this year. Financing of US$665 million is now expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2021, Ivanov said in an emailed response to questions. The lead arranger for that funding is Cairo-based Afreximbank.

The Darwendale project has the potential to become one of the world’s biggest platinum mines and its development is central to the Zimbabwean government’s plans to reboot a collapsing economy. Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest platinum group metal reserves after South Africa and Russia. Former president Robert Mugabe handed the Darwendale concession to Russian investors in 2006 after the government repossessed land from a local unit of South Africa’s Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. — Bloomberg.