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In an interview yesterday, Prof Ncube said the committee comprising officials drawn from Essar Holdings, Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and from his ministry, would be expected to meet within the first two weeks of January.

“The issue of claims needs to be addressed urgently, as we are now at implementation stage. What we have now agreed is that we will have a meeting between Essar, ourselves and our colleagues in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to finalise all the issues to do with joint exploration and the transfer of mining rights to NewZim Minerals. We are hoping that everything will be in place by early January and the committee will do the paperwork,” he said.

Prof Ncube said the committee could have met earlier to facilitate the swift resumption of operations at the Redcliff-based giant steel company, were it not for the festive season holidays.

He said Government has put in place mechanisms to ensure that the NewZim Steel project, formerly Ziscosteel, springs to life for real this time around.

“We have put in place a Cabinet team to monitor the process. The team will be playing a supervisory role. I hope all ministries will cooperate this time and allow operations to commence. We could have facilitated the meetings to start this month but everyone is on holiday. We are hoping, however, to move swiftly once the holidays are over,” said Prof Ncube.

The Minister said Essar and Ziscosteel were supposed to pay workers part of their December salaries following an understanding that was undertaken.

He acknowledged that things were not yet running smoothly at NewZim Steel, although he remained optimistic.

“The workers were supposed to be paid 50 percent of their December salaries. That was the understanding between Essar and Ziscosteel. Ziscosteel was supposed to meet 25 percent of the salaries while the other 25 percent was to come from Essar. We, however, expect things to have normalised once operations start in January next year,” said Prof Ncube.

The Redcliff-based company owes its employees more than $12 million, a debt it inherited from Ziscosteel.

News that operations at NewZim Steel could resume in January certainly bring relief to the over 3 000 workers, who have gone for many months without salaries, after the investor suspended payments in March this year.

NewZim Steel had previously hit a brick wall, making many false starts owing to misunderstandings over the control of the vast iron ore claims.

According to the original deal, Essar Group would take 53 percent of NewZim Steel (former Ziscosteel-manufacturing arm) and 80 percent of NewZim Minerals (former Buchwa Iron Mining Company — mining arm) while the Government takes the remaining shares in both firms.

Prof Ncube said the Essar Group requested a Cabinet guarantee that there would be no changes to the original deal signed between the Government and Essar last year.

Mines and Mining Development Minister, Dr Obert Mpofu once said the deal was supposed to be revisited because Essar Group would pay only $700 million for resources worth over $30 billion.

He told a Parliamentary Committee that iron ore reserves in Mwanesi near Chivhu, which are supposed to be controlled by Essar Group under the agreement, had a cumulative value of $30 billion.

Government recently endorsed the implementation matrix that was agreed to by the Government and the Essar Group management.