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The Herald, December 20, 1993
THE $1,7 billion Hartley Platinum feasibility study which was completed in June this year, was finally approved Friday night in Melbourne, Australia, and ground work on Zimbabwe’s youngest mine began here over the weekend.
Australia’s Delta Gold and Broken Hill Proprietary is going to develop the platinum mine near Chegutu, 80 km south west of Harare.
The mine is expected to employ more than 140 000 people and its full production capacity will be 105 000 ounces of platinum yearly.
The Minister of Mines, Cde Eddison Zvobgo, said the Government would amend its Mines and Minerals Act to provide a package deal, which would allow for certain tax benefits and concession for projects involving investments of more than $1 billion.
The Hartley Platinum project is a joint venture between Delta and BHP Minerals in which BHP will earn up to 67 percent interest in the project.
The mine would be a long-term and reliable source of platinum outside South Africa.
Through wholly-owned subsidiaries, Delta holds an Exclusive Prospecting Order over an area of approximately 640 square kilometres covering a major part of the Hartley complex.
BHP began working on the feasibility study in 1990 following a study by Delta. Early in 1993 BHP completed underground activities in the Hartley Platinum trial mine, and by June 1993 geological, geo-technical and mining work had been completed.
The results of this work demonstrated that economic extraction of the platinum group of metals and base metals was technically feasible. Sources with the management of BHP Minerals confirmed on Friday that the deal had been clinched.
Cde Zvobgo said in an interview last week that the reform had made the country a sound place to invest.
He added that the country had so far granted 119 exclusive prospecting orders — 75 percent of which were for the exploitation of diamonds.
De Beers of South Africa, Cde Zvobgo said, had also applied for five exclusive prospecting orders since its return to the country after an argument in 1991 over the marketing of diamonds.
Russia was another country that had also submitted high resolution pictures to the Zimbabwean Government that showed the country was littered with Kimberlite pipes, the rock where diamonds are usually found.
The people around Selous met their Member of Parliament, Cde Edina Madzongwe, to persuade the BHP management to consider the locals for employment first.
Some of the villagers told The Herald that they welcomed the creation of the mine.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
The magnitude of Hartley Platinum project, which is now Zimplats and the companies involved was “most certainly a signal” to other major mining houses that Zimbabwe was a country able to attract significant investment in mining.
Work at Zimplats, the second largest platinum mine in the world and the largest-ever single investment in Zimbabwean mining, started in September 1994.
While we congratulate Australia for clinching strategic mining deals in Zimbabwe, which would lead to a US$12 billion mining economy by 2023, it is time that the indigenous people have majority shareholding of these strategic minerals.
Apart from platinum, another Australian firm — Invictus, is carrying out successful exploration work for gas and oil in the Zambezi Valley.
The creation of a one-stop investment centre — ZIDA — is slowly making investment in Zimbabwe easy and transparent.
With all the boundless natural resources, Zimbabwe should never be counted as one of the poor countries on the African continent.
Online Reporter