Zimbabwe has signed a mining investment deal with Karo Resources valued at $4.2 billion.
Cyprus-based Karo Resources and the government of Zimbabwe – home to the world’s second-largest known platinum reserves after South Africa – have concluded a deal that will see the mining company develop a platinum mine in Zimbabwe.
This deal is Zimbabwe’s first big investment since former president Robert Mugabe was ousted in November 2017, as well as the largest to date in Zimbabwe’s mining industry.
According to Winston Chitando, Zimbabwe Mines Minister, the project will start in 2020 and produce 1.4 million ounces a year of platinum group metals, potentially making Karo the country’s top producer by 2023.Chitando said:
"This is the largest investment structure in the country's mining industry in Zimbabwe. The landscape of Zimbabwe's mining industry will never be the same."
However, the minister says, Karo must comply fully with the country’s recently amened empowerment law, giving up majority ownership in the project – the country’s indigenisation laws require locals to own 51 percent.
