Recently, in what could prove a controversial development, there were several media reports that the Asian country was looking to buy uranium from Zimbabwe in defiance of ongoing UN sanctions. Zimbabwean media quoted Foreign Affairs Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, as saying his country planned to cooperate with Iran on uranium mining as Zimbabwe had rich uranium reserves but was faced with a shortage of funds and did not possess the technical knowledge and equipment needed for extracting the ores.
The UK-based Business Monitor International (BMI), in a report titled Zimbabwe Mining Report Q2 2011, this week warned against such plans. In BMIs opinion, such a provocative move by Harare, in defiance of international pressure on Iran to cease its nuclear programme for fear it is looking to build nuclear weapons, could well prove counterproductive, especially with international investors only just starting to return to the Zimbabwean mining sector following many years of internal political and economic strife.
Zimbabwe has estimated uranium reserves of some 455 000 tonnes, mainly located north of Harare. It would reportedly take up to three years of development before the country could produce uranium, with the reserves then set to be exhausted within five years.
Iran is under sanctions from UN in response to the countrys uranium-enrichment activities, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but which other countries contend are driven by military ambitions. The aged Zimbabwean leader added to the growing uncertainty surrounding Zimbabwean mining when he attacked local platinum miner Zimbabwe Platinum (Zimplats) for taking all the money to South Africa, where parent company Impala Platinum is based.
At the end of 2010, there had been hopes that the government was putting the issue of indigenous empowerment to one side to allow the local economy time to recover. At that time, the government stated that its controversial Indigenization and Empowerment Act which originally called for a 51 percent stake in all mining companies (with assets over US$500 000) to be divested to indigenous Zimbabwean groups within a five-year period had been suspended until the local economy recovers, said BMI.
Given Mugabes recent attacks on Zimplats and its South African parent company, then there may once again be cause for concern over the issue of ownership over the coming months.
Post published in: News