JOHANNESBURG Feb 28 (Reuters) – Impala Platinum
, the world’s second largest platinum producer, is
seeking high-level talks with the Zimbabwean government which on
the weekend gave it 2 weeks to surrender a 29.5 percent stake in
its key unit there to a state-run fund.
Zimplats, 87 percent owned by Implats, had failed
to comply fully with the ownership law, empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere said in a letter seen by Reuters on Sunday.
Failure to present the government with a plan to transfer
the holding within two weeks would result in unspecified
“enforcement mechanisms”, the letter added.
“We are examining the contents of the minister’s letter. We
will then seek to engage with the minister as soon as possible,”
Implats chief executive David Brown told Reuters.
Brown said he could not say at this stage whether he would
visit Zimbabwe this week. Local media reports on Monday
suggested he was on the verge of going to Zimbabwe.
Implats, which is also trying to end a violent six-week long
strike at its Rustenburg operations in South Africa, has long
been a target of an “empowerment” drive by the Zimbabwean
government to get all foreign-owned firms to hand over majority
stakes to local black investors.
Kasukuwere has in the past threatened to cancel the mining
licences of firms that do not comply.
On Friday, Implats said Zimbabwe had also rejected part of
an empowerment plan for the Mimosa operation, its 50-50 joint
venture platinum mine with Aquarius Platinum.
(Reporting By Sherilee Lakmidas, editing by Ed Stoddard and
Jason Neely)
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