A Zimplats operation in Zimbabwe. File picture: Supplied A Zimplats operation in Zimbabwe. File picture: Supplied
Harare – Zimbabwe has asked foreign miners – whose
operations are being crippled by delayed payments for international
transactions owing to a worsening cash crisis - to spend more on local
procurement and other payments.
Harare is battling to contain a crisis occasioned by
shortages of bank notes, with Mines and Mining Development Minister, Walter
Chidakwa saying foreign miners now have to spend 75 percent of their earnings
on payments inside the country.
This would be in pursuit of compliance with
indigenisation after President Robert Mugabe softened his stance on forcing
foreign miners to cede 51 percent shares to local Zimbabwean groups.
“So either you go for the (49 percent foreign ownership)
or the 75 percent local spending. I can tell you many companies are keen on the
75 percent (local) spending,” Chidakwa said while launching a funding scheme
for small scale miners this week.
Increased local spending by miners – which are highly
cash generative – would help breathe fresh liquidity impetus into the economy.
Impala Platinum's unit in Zimbabwe, Zimplats, says it spent about $51 million
on local payments during the quarter to end March.
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Zimplats also paid $10 million in taxes during the
period. Mineral royalties and other taxes from mining companies, among them
also units of Anglo Platinum, Sibanye Gold and Metallon Corporation, are among
the mainstays of Zimbabwe’s fiscus alongside tobacco earnings, tourism and
telecommunications.