Kuvimba Mining House (KMH)’s Great Dyke Investments (GDI) is not seeking any foreign investments following the withdrawal of Russia's Vi Holding from the $3 billion Darwendale Platinum project, in Zimbabwe.
Vi Holding withdrew from a 50-50 joint venture in June 2022.
The declaration contradicts prior reports that KMH was unable to seek new funding for the mining project because European investors are hesitant to participate in enterprises with Russian partners.
KMH technical director Munashe Shava told the media on the sidelines of the GDI project tour that the mine is concentrating on internally developing the project.
“For your own information, this project is now valued at $2,5 billion and [has] a lifespan of over 50 years, and when we look at it, the approach now is to say, let’s find our own resources to develop this project because it doesn’t make sense to bring in Chinese, Americans, or whoever has got money to come I and get into a project of this magnitude,” he was quoted as saying by New Zimbawe.com.
“When investors come in they bring their own conditions, which might also affect the strategy of having a refinery because once an investor comes in, one will say look I have my own arrangement for a smelter in Asia…so that’s the thinking. At the moment we are not looking for foreign investors.”
The project's initial development work began in early 2020.
The long-delayed project, located on Zimbabwe's mineral-rich Great Dyke, was planned to have a peak production capacity of 860,000oz of platinum group metals (PGMs) per year.
The project has about 44 million ounces of PGMs, according to Shava.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
