By Nelson Banya
HARARE Dec 28 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is considering a
ban on raw platinum exports in a bid to force miners to set up
refineries in the country, but this move will not take place
“overnight”, a government official said on Wednesday.
The southern African country has the second largest known
platinum reserves in the world, after neighbouring South Africa,
and the top two global producers, Anglo American Platinum
and Impala Platinum, have operations there.
Both Amplats and Implats currently send platinum concentrate
from their Zimbabwean mines to South African refineries but the
Zimbabwe government has over the years tried to encourage the
firms into processing the metal locally.
Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire told Reuters that the
government, which restored a ban on raw chrome exports earlier
this year to promote local smelting, was now focusing on
platinum producers.
“They need to start investing in a refinery in Zimbabwe. We
need value-addition for our minerals here, we cannot keep
exporting jobs,” Chimanikire said.
“We’re not saying it’s going to be overnight. We’re ringing
the alarm bells to show we’re not sleeping.”
Platinum producers have said Zimbabwe’s current production
is insufficient to sustain a viable refinery. Implats’ Zimplats
operations currently operates the largest mine in the
country, with production capacity of 180,000 ounces annually.
Mimosa, Implats’ 50:50 joint venture with Aquarius,
accounted for more than 20 percent of Aquarius’s total
attributable output of 487,404 PGM ounces for the full year,
while Amplats’ Unki mine produced 22,000 ounces in the first
half of 2011.
Continued…
