* Zimbabwe a “good investment destination”-Implats CEO
* Zimbabwe accuses Implats of delaying tactics
(Adds Implats CEO comments)
HARARE/JOHANNESBURG Feb 29 (Reuters) – Impala
Platinum, the world’s second-largest platinum producer,
said on Wednesday that it would not exit Zimbabwe despite the
demands being made by the government that it hand over majority
stakes in its local operations to Zimbabweans.
Implats Chief Executive David Brown told private radio
station 702 Talk Radio the company still saw the southern
African nation as a “good investment destination”.
“There’s huge expansion potential … but we need
certainty,” he said.
Zimbabwe, which holds the world’s second largest PGM
deposits after South Africa, is crucial to the future of the
platinum industry because of its massive resources.
But platinum companies, as Zimbabwe’s largest investors, are
being targeted in the government’s drive to get all outside
companies to hand over 51 percent stakes in their mines.
Implats has offered to hand over between 25 percent and 30
percent in equity and make up the balance through credits it
hoped to receive in exchange for giving up some of its land five
years ago.
But the minister in charge of Zimbabwe’s black empowerment
drive Saviour Kasukuwere has rejected part of Implats proposal
and has given the company till Wednesday next week to hand over
29.5 percent of its Zimplats operation.
“The problem with Brown is that he talks too much. We are
sick and tired of his delaying tactics,” Kasukuwere told
Reuters.
Kasukuwere has previously threatened to cancel the mining
licences of non-compliant firms.
($1 = 7.5305 South African rand)
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Sherilee Lakmidas; Editing
by Ed Stoddard, Tiisetso Motsoeneng and David Holmes)
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