New deal for miners close

The compromise is likely to bring finality to the contentious Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, which was blocked before it reached Parliament in 2007 after a row over provisions related to equity changes, erupted among stakeholders.
The government had proposed to amend the Mines and Minerals Act by adding provisions that set aside 51 percent shareholding in all “big mining corporations” and on energy and strategic minerals for local investors, 25 percent of which would be “non-contributory.”
Since then, the relationship between the two parties has been acrimonious with the government showing a dogged determination to muscle through its indigenisation policy, as espoused in the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act of 2008, with the mining industry vehemently resisting the legislative reform terming it an “act of expropriation.”
Jack Murehwa, former Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe president, says government emphasis has evidently drifted from equity to broad-based empowerment after it realised the equity vision was too grandiose and unlikely to yield the envisaged empowerment benefits in the short-term as it may take a while before mining companies declare dividends.
But this will not supplant government’s long-term objective of indigenising the gold, diamond, platinum and energy-mineral sectors, where it is likely to seek further engagement, though it may eventually climb down on the size of equity to be held by local entrepreneurs.
Under the new deal, companies will be judged according to the procurement contracts that favour local suppliers, infrastructure and social development, skills development, support for small-scale miners and release of unutilised claims for auction to local investors.