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Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
AN Indian company is reportedly interested in injecting funding into Gweru based ferrochrome producer Zimbabwe Alloys (ZimAlloys), which will boost operations.
A local consortium Benscore fronted by prominent businessman, Mr Farai Rwodzi acquired ZimAlloys from Anglo American but operations failed to take off due to working capital constraints and plummeting chrome prices on the world market.
Midlands Minister of State, Jason Machaya confirmed the development but could not divulge the name of the investor for fear of scuttling the deal.
“As a province we are concerned about the state of industry and as Government we are creating a conducive environment to attract investment.
“I am happy to announce that as we speak ZimAlloys is in negotiations with an Indian company, which I cannot name at the moment for confidentiality reasons, with a view of resuming production at the company,” said Minister Machaya.
He said the company that will take over operations will inject a financial package that will see all the smelters at the ferrochrome company coming into line.
ZimAlloys judicial manager Mr Reggie Saruchera also confirmed the deal to Business Chronicle.
“While I’m not at liberty to identify the new investor for fear of jeopardising the deal, we are in negotiations with these investors and we are expecting to conclude the deal within the next two to three months. ZimAlloys is my priority at the moment because I have revived the Zimbabwe Mining and Smelting Company (Zimasco) and my focus is now on this deal. We are definitely going to resuscitate ZimAlloys,” he said.
ZimAlloys had abandoned its major operations and instead set up jig concentrators to recover metal at its ferrochrome slag dumps.
ZimAlloys has since 2012 been processing its dumps which have a metal recovery of about two to three percent.
The company is working on their dumps, which is inclusive of one commissioned in 2013 in a partnership with a Chinese firm, Jinan in a deal worth about $2, 3 million.
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