Midzi threatens to nationalise mines

ign firms mining critical minerals such as gold and platinum, while it will pay for another 26 percent over five years to achieve a controlling stake in the strategic mines.
The government and black-owned firms will also acquire 51 percent stake in foreign-owned mines producing other minerals not classified as strategic under the proposed new law.
Hawkish Mines Minister Amos Midzi earlier this week told a meeting of mostly black small-scale miners in Masvingo city, 260km south of Harare, that the government would take over complete ownership of all mines whose foreign owners refused to “at least surrender 50 percent” shareholding to the state and blacks.
Midzi – whose ominous threats last Sunday apparently received little attention in the chaos-engulfed Zimbabwe following the country’s switch over to new currency – said: “We will take over all foreign-owned companies which fail to comply with government policy of surrendering at least 50 percent of their shares to locals.
“As the government we have realised that these so called (international) mining giants were not in line with our policy. We will forcibly take over such companies in order to serve the interests of the nation.”
The Mines Minister, who said the government had already finished drafting the controversial new mine ownership law, did not say whether the government would pay for mines seized from foreign owners refusing to parcel out shareholding to the state and blacks.
There been confusion over the proposed new mine law with Mugabe at one time suggesting the government had not yet decided to go ahead with the law, which he said was still at the initial stages of discussion.