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Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and a Chinese investor, Beijing Pinchang, have up to the end of July to conclude negotiations on the resuscitation of Kamativi Tin Mine. Responding to questions in Parliament on progress made to resuscitate Kamativi last Wednesday, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo said failure to conclude the discussions by end of next month would mean the deal would have collapsed.

Last year, the Government announced that the Chinese investor was set to inject $102 million to resuscitate the country’s sole tin mine. “I think this is the closest that we’ve come to signing and finalising an agreement. The conditions precedence must be satisfied, if my recollection is correct, during this month of July. So, it has to happen by end of July, I think.

“If we don’t conclude by then, then the parties have failed to agree. If the parties agree, a permanent position will be concluded in July and the project should take-off,” said Deputy Minister Moyo.

The government through ZMDC last year entered into an agreement with Beijing Pinchang to resuscitate Kamativi and the parties had started working on financial closure issues.

“We hope that these last discussions will be concluded soon. There are conditions or precedence, that the targeted investor must satisfy and I would like to say that a permanent announcement will be made by the ministry once these discussions are finalised,” Moyo said.

Kamativi’s revival has been on the cards since 2009 with the former workers calling for urgency in the resuscitation of the mine, which closed in 1994.

As the mine re-opens, the ex-workers, through their representative, the Kamativi Early Settlers Development Organisation, are pressing for the establishment of a small-scale mining syndicate that will operate as a tributary once the defunct mine re-opens.

The mine has close to 40 million tonnes of open cast tin reserves considered among the largest in the world. Wholly owned by ZMDC, Kamativi ceased operations after the price of tin on the international market declined rapidly.

Kamativi Tin Mine, which was opened in 1936, also has vast deposits of tantalite, lithium and tungsten.