Analysis

More than 14 years after being forcibly relocated from their ancestral villages to make way for mining in one of the world’s largest diamond-producing projects, residents of Arda Transau are still living in dire poverty. Across the 567-kilometre-wide terrain of diamond fields and mines, known as Marange, that have sold at least 76 million carats […]

For proof, look no further than the transaction that’s just completed around Prospect Resources’ Arcadia lithium project, situated around 38 kilometres east of the capital, Harare. In working up Arcadia, Prospect followed a path that’s been tried and tested by countless junior miners over the decades – it made a discovery, it delineated a resource, […]

TWO weeks ago, the Zimbabwe government was forced to drop its plan to begin charging platinum exporters a 15% beneficiation tax for failing to set up refiners in the country. The contentious tax, which was announced in 2015, but was due to be effective later this year, has been a source of discontentment for platinum […]

INVESTIGATIONS correspondent at the Financial Times, Tim Burgis published a book in 2017 titled The looting machine. It is kaleidoscope of the penury of Africa caused by a coalition between an international predatory mafia and African Presidents and their predatory coalitions made up of party loyalists, the army, intelligence services and State institutions that are […]

THE current state of lithium mining in Zimbabwe exposes a very important issue which authorities must give due attention. The hope is that authorities are not deliberately looking sideways when clear plunder is taking place to benefit from the kickbacks that come as benefits of playing to the tune of big multinationals during the consummation […]

A MINISTRY of Mines and Mining Development probe into diamond exploration of big multinationals in the 1990s exposed shocking evidence of plunder. The big resources outfit, spirited away substantial tonnes of diamonds to South Africa, claiming that its shipments were only samples that were going to laboratories for studies. It is difficult to tell how […]

Africa’s push for a just energy transition has been given fresh impetus after the European Union drafted a proposal to classify natural gas projects as “green energy” investments. This would mean that for several decades more, natural gas-endowed States in Africa could plough billions from the sale of the commodity into their economies, create jobs […]

Petra Diamonds has had its reputation as an ethical miner broken by a lawsuit showing human rights abuses at its Williamson mine. In November 2020, UK-based NGO Raid drew the world’s attention to a range of human rights abuses at the Williamson diamond mine in Tanzania. Illegal miners were subjected to physical beatings, fatal assaults, […]

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube might remain confident the mining sector will perform positively in 2021 after having projected in November last year the industry will grow by 11% in the current year before revising it recently to 2%, largely driven by planned expansion projects across minerals, but analysts warned funding problems could upset the sector. […]

Treasury chief professor Mthuli Ncube announced to Parliament that the government has found 10 gold companies that will have a majority shareholding in the country’s sole gold refinery, Fidelity Printers and Refiners  (FPR). The sale of a 60% stake is valued at US$49 million, while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will retain 40% ownership […]