Zimpapers Logo

Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Fred Moyo (left) addresses miners while Mimosa Mining Company executive chairperson Winston Chitando listens at the Joint Suppliers and Producers’ Conference during Mine Entra at ZITF in Bulawayo last week

Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
FOREIGN mining equipment manufacturing companies that took part in the just ended Mine Entra exhibition in Bulawayo, have expressed interest in opening branches in Zimbabwe.

Representatives from Chinese and South African owned firms said they found Zimbabwe more enticing in terms of business opportunities and were already working on opening shops in the country.

A representative from Yantai Xinhai Mining Machinery Company from China, Alice Zhou, said their company was seeking partnership with local firms while searching for a proper location to open a branch in the country.

“We expect to open a branch this year and we’re seeking a local business partner as per the requirements of the investment policy,” she said.

Zhou said the branch was likely to be opened in Kwekwe or Harare depending on the availability of land and demand for their products.

Edmund Vudzijena from Videx Mining Products, a South African firm, said their company has always been keen to open a branch in the country but shelved the plans following delays in the resuscitation of New ZimSteel, formerly Zisco in Redcliff.

“The idea is in the pipeline and in the mean time we’re trying to meet the indigenisation policy standards,” he said.

Vudzijena said their company has been operating in the country for about two years through agencies that have been marketing products on their behalf.

China’s Yintao Jinhao Mining Machinery’s general manager, Xiangchen Wen, said their company was in talks with the government to establish a branch in Zimbabwe.

“We’ve been working with Zimbabwean companies very well, supplying them machinery and we’re happy.

“We’ll soon be engaging the government with a view to opening a branch,” he said.