Sept11,2011
* Zimplats accounts for 10 percent of Implats' output
* Implats shares up two percent
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe may give foreign miners more time to submit plans to transfer majority stakes to local black investors, the state-run Herald newspaper said on Friday.
Firms such Zimplats , the local unit of South Africa's Impala Platinum have asked for an extension of the deadline to submit empowerment plans, the paper said.
"Our teams are now working with some mining companies that have asked for more time to work on their new proposals and we will keep the public updated on the developments," Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told the Herald.
The paper said Zimplats was working on a proposal to submit by the end of November, two months past the original deadline to transfer majority stakes.
"It appears that the timeframe that Zimplats was given to amend its proposal was short and the company has now requested for about two months to work on another proposal," said the paper, which is widely seen as an official government mouthpiece.
"A new proposal would be submitted to government before the end of November. The new plan will have an element of the community share ownership trust," Zimplats deputy chairman Much Masunda was quoted as saying.
Implats' shares fell more than three percent on Thursday on reports the government was moving to revoke Zimplats' licence. The shares recouped about two percent on Friday morning, outpacing a 0.25 percent rise on the blue-chip top 40 index .
Zimplats' accounts for about 10 percent of Implats' annual group output of close to 1.8 million ounces of platinum.
(sourced Thomson Reuters)
Showing posts with label foreign mining firm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreign mining firm. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Mugabe Vows to Force Foreign Miners to Sell Stakes in Zimbabwe
March 28, 2011, 6:45 AM EDT
By Nelson Gore Banya and Brian Latham
March 28 - Zimbabwe’s government will make sure foreign companies are “junior partners” in the country, President Robert Mugabe said, after the state published regulations to take 51 percent of mines.
“We are taking back our country,” Mugabe said yesterday in the capital, Harare. “Listen, Britain and America, this is our country. If you have companies which would want to work in our mining sector, they are welcome to come and join us, but we must have our people as the major shareholders.”
Anglo American Plc and Rio Tinto Plc “must transform and become Zimbabwean,” the 87-year-old Mugabe said.
The government, in a March 25 decree, ordered foreign miners to explain within 45 days how they will cede 51 percent of their local assets to “indigenous” Zimbabweans. The companies have six months to sell the stake, according to the decree. The regulations are in line with the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, first signed into law three years ago. The country has the world’s second-biggest platinum and chrome reserves after South Africa.
“It’s another dimension to the struggle,” Mugabe said. “Let that lesson go deep.” Investors should “come as friends, not as masters and superiors,” he said.
Aquarius Platinum Ltd., which owns a stake in a mine in the southern African nation, fell the most in eight months in London trading after it published a statement on the regulations. The Perth, Australia-based company said March 25 that its Mimosa Mining Co. unit is in discussions with the Zimbabwean authorities to find out how to comply with the law and is “confident it will be in a strong position to meet the requirements.”
No Commitment
Aquarius dropped as much as 7.5 percent to 342.4 pence, the biggest decline since July 19, and traded at 349.6 pence as of 11:35 a.m. in London. The shares dropped 6.1 percent in Johannesburg.
Calls by Bloomberg News to Rio Tinto’s Harare unit today to seek comment weren’t immediately answered. The company declined to comment when its London headquarters was called by phone March 25.
It’s unclear whether companies will get a market price, or any payment, for the shares they are forced to sell, Harare- based independent economist John Robertson said in an e-mailed statement today.
“Non-payment for what is being purchased would normally be considered very good cause for not parting with the asset, but it appears that government has no intention of offering the mining companies the right to cancel the sale of their shares on such grounds,” Robertson said.
“The much more serious longer-term effect of these regulations will be the almost complete arrest of new mining investment inflows,” he said.
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is in a power-sharing government with the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The law doesn’t allow for expropriation or nationalization, Tsvangirai said on March 8. (By Bloomberg)
“We are taking back our country,” Mugabe said yesterday in the capital, Harare. “Listen, Britain and America, this is our country. If you have companies which would want to work in our mining sector, they are welcome to come and join us, but we must have our people as the major shareholders.”
Anglo American Plc and Rio Tinto Plc “must transform and become Zimbabwean,” the 87-year-old Mugabe said.
The government, in a March 25 decree, ordered foreign miners to explain within 45 days how they will cede 51 percent of their local assets to “indigenous” Zimbabweans. The companies have six months to sell the stake, according to the decree. The regulations are in line with the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, first signed into law three years ago. The country has the world’s second-biggest platinum and chrome reserves after South Africa.
“It’s another dimension to the struggle,” Mugabe said. “Let that lesson go deep.” Investors should “come as friends, not as masters and superiors,” he said.
Aquarius Platinum Ltd., which owns a stake in a mine in the southern African nation, fell the most in eight months in London trading after it published a statement on the regulations. The Perth, Australia-based company said March 25 that its Mimosa Mining Co. unit is in discussions with the Zimbabwean authorities to find out how to comply with the law and is “confident it will be in a strong position to meet the requirements.”
No Commitment
Aquarius dropped as much as 7.5 percent to 342.4 pence, the biggest decline since July 19, and traded at 349.6 pence as of 11:35 a.m. in London. The shares dropped 6.1 percent in Johannesburg.
Calls by Bloomberg News to Rio Tinto’s Harare unit today to seek comment weren’t immediately answered. The company declined to comment when its London headquarters was called by phone March 25.
It’s unclear whether companies will get a market price, or any payment, for the shares they are forced to sell, Harare- based independent economist John Robertson said in an e-mailed statement today.
“Non-payment for what is being purchased would normally be considered very good cause for not parting with the asset, but it appears that government has no intention of offering the mining companies the right to cancel the sale of their shares on such grounds,” Robertson said.
“The much more serious longer-term effect of these regulations will be the almost complete arrest of new mining investment inflows,” he said.
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is in a power-sharing government with the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The law doesn’t allow for expropriation or nationalization, Tsvangirai said on March 8. (By Bloomberg)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Zimbabwe PM says not set on foreign firm ownership
Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:54am GMT
HARARE, March 10 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cabinet has not yet decided minimum ownership thresholds for foreign companies that are ultimately supposed to surrender a 51 percent stake to local blacks, the prime minister said on Thursday.
Morgan Tsvangirai also told a meeting of business leaders the government had not yet drawn up detailed plans on a proposed sovereign wealth fund to buy majority stakes in foreign mining firms. (Reporting by by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Jon Herskovitz,sourced:Thomson Reuters)
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