AFP

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe Plantinum Mines (Zimplats) - a subsidiary of Impala Platinum Holdings (IMP) - has until November 15 2011 to submit a revised indigenisation plan to the Zimbabwean government.

Impala said on Thursday that this had been agreed with the Zimbabwean Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere.

“The threat of Zimbabwe Platinum Mines' operating licence being cancelled has therefore fallen away. Implats will continue to inform shareholders of on-going material developments.”

In a letter dated September 6 2011, Kasukuwere informed Zimplats that its Indigenisation Plan did not meet the minimum requirements of the law and accordingly, he has requested the Minister of Mines and Mining Development to cancel the company's operating licence.

This development followed several meetings between management and the relevant authorities on the Zimplats Indigenisation Plan.

However, Zimbabwe's government officials recently appeared to have abandoned their previous confrontational approach towards foreign mining firms and adopted a new conciliatory tone, telling mining investors that the mines ministry had no intentions of cancelling any mining licences for failure to comply with a questionable empowerment policy.

At the Zimbabwe Mining Indaba in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare mines minister, Obert Mpofu, told delegates that his ministry had no intention of cancelling mining licences.

Last week, he told BusinessLIVE/I-Net Bridge that he was unaware that Zimplats could lose its licence for non-compliance with an indigenisation law.

There are some negotiations taking place with certain parties but no licence has been cancelled. We have no intention of cancelling licences,” said Mpofu, much to the relief of mining executives and other investment officials.

Even the outspoken and highly verbose Kasukuwere surprisingly changed his tone.

At the Indaba he spoke of the progress that had so far been made with regards to the empowerment policy, which was increasingly becoming “polarised”.

“With the mining industry, we've had our running battles, but now we've made tremendous progress,” he said. - I-Net Bridge