Johannesburg - Zimbabwe has applied for a court order requesting that Impala Platinum Holdings’ local unit hand over almost 28 000 hectares (69 200 acres) of its mining lease through a compulsory purchase.
The land, held under a lease by Zimplats Holdings but owned by the state, is surplus to requirements and will be used to build a 600-megawatt power plant, the government said in affidavits filed to the country’s administrative court.
“Compulsory acquisition of the land is necessary for economic growth,” Zimbabwean Mines Minister Walter Chidakwa said in the affidavit.
The government said the power project will earn $3 billion a year for the state. “This will be coupled with numerous multiplier benefits to the economy, which are estimated to be at least 60 percent of capital expenditure,” it said.
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Zimplats is the country’s biggest miner of platinum, used in jewellry and catalytic converters for automobiles, and has opposed the government’s request, saying the land in question is not excess to its requirements.
The producer handed about a third of its mineral rights back to the government in 2006 in exchange for cash and credits toward Zimbabwe’s indigenisation rules, which require foreign-owned companies to be part owned by local black investors.
“We’ve been talking to the government about this issue for some time and those talks are continuing,” said Johan Theron, a spokesman for Impala. “There’s a little piece of land between where we’re mining and what’s been released. They have an interest in acquiring more of that land.”
Zimplats lodged an objection to the proposed purchase as far back as March 2013.
BLOOMBERG