adminHe said the ore reserves, first discovered in the early 1960s, were so vast that the Government would have no problems attracting international bidders.
The Government last year gave 80 percent control of the 33 billion tonne Mwanesi iron ore reserves to Essar as part of the deal to take over Ziscosteel, which has been renamed NewZim Steel.
The reserves belong to Buchwa Iron Mining Company, a subsidiary of Zisco.
The company paid $750 million for the transaction.
Government, however, wants to renegotiate the deal under the country’s indigenisation regulations.
Officials from Essar Holdings were in the country last week to renegotiate the deal.
Dr Jordan, who has extensive mining experience both here and in South Africa, said he suspected Government did not know the full extent of the reserves when it signed the deal with Essar, otherwise it would not have given them at the value they were sold.
“They are enormous resources and so valuable that they should be put on public tender. There are a lot of companies that want to get their hands on them,” he said on the sidelines of a recent high-level economic forum in Victoria Falls.
Dr Jordan said when Essar entered into the deal, it was not interested in the resuscitation of Ziscosteel but the iron ore reserves.
When Government announced plans to sell Zisco, a number of large international steel companies submitted proposals to take over the company, but they were rejected because they were too big.
These included a consortium made up of Jindhal Steel and Power, also of India, with local partners and South African subsidiary of Arcelor Mittal.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti said Government would discuss the suggestion by Dr Jordan on the iron ore reserves, calling it “a game changer”.
Essar has said it planned to build a pipeline to the sea port in Mozambique to transport iron ore.
However, the Government wants some of the ore mined in the country to be beneficiated locally for use by the local steel industry.
Online Reporter