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In a statement on Monday, the ministry said all applications should be accompanied by full details of directors and shareholders of the company.
The applications should reach the parent ministry’s mining affairs board within 30 days.
Contacted for comment, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Gift Chimanikire said: “We have asked them to resubmit their applications so that as a ministry we update our records. At the moment, when we go through our records there are ownership matters.
“For instance, we have had a case in Bindura of a landlord based in London who left a will that his granddaughter will inherit the claim and that claim has been lying idle for more than a decade.”
He said the Government through his ministry wanted to establish ownership of the claims.
In the case where owners of the EPOs are non-existent, Government would reallocate them to potential entrepreneurs.
“We also need to establish that are those people owning the claims in Zimbabwe and if not Zimbabweans we will encourage them to get into joint venture partnerships with the locals,” said Deputy Minister Chimanikire.
He said dormant mines dominated the country’s mining regions.
“For example, I was in Shurugwi recently and observed a miner who owned 284 claims that he is subletting to the locals.
“Some of the claims are lying idle and we do not want such a situation and through the recently gazetted mining fees that will force him to release the claims,” he said.
Online Reporter