ZIMBABWE’s largest resource firm Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) is courting potential investment partners to establish platinum mining operations at its Great Dyke Investments (GDI) unit despite prices of the precious metal declining on the international market.
The diversified mining group with assets ranging from gold to platinum snapped a 50% stake in GDI from Afromet Joint Stock Company in 2022.
Afromet Joint Stock Company is wholly owned by Russia’s investment and industrial group Vi Holding.
At that material time, KMH announced that the acquisition would bolster its position as the country’s leading mining firm.
Addressing a press conference this week, KMH acting chief executive officer Trevor Barnard said the entity’s short-term plans involves setting up open cast mining operations at GDI.
“The decrease in platinum group metals prices has had an influence on our operations and our plans at GDI.
“We still believe that the project has a bright future. It is still a profitable business. We are busy negotiating with a number of partners and other options to try and put the mine in operation,” he said.
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“We believe we can put the mine into operation on an open cast basis to start off with. But the priority for us first is to find a funder and the necessary funds to put the mine into operation.”
KMH, which is wholly owned by the government and a member of the Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), also runs lithium mining operations at its Sandawana Mine in the Midlands province.
Barnard noted that despite tumbling prices of the “white gold” on global markets, KMH would leverage on its “high grade” resource to remain profitable.
“It is very difficult for us to do anything about the price. We are price takers not price fixers. There are... things that count in our favour," said Barnard.
“The resource at Sandawana is very high grade. From that perspective it would be a low-cost operation. This means that it will still be profitable even under low lithium prices.”
