Kamativi investors remain elusive

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The government needs about $100 million to reopen defunct Kamativi Tin Mine in Matabeleland North and is struggling to get an investor, Mines deputy minister Fred Moyo has said.

VICTORIA FALLS — The government needs about $100 million to reopen defunct Kamativi Tin Mine in Matabeleland North and is struggling to get an investor, Mines deputy minister Fred Moyo has said.

Kamativi Mine
Kamativi Mine

The Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)-owned mine, which used to produce one million tonnes of the base metal annually, was shut down in June 1994 after international tin prices collapsed and attempts to reopen the mine have so far drawn blanks.

The closure rendered its staff complement of about 1 000 employees and their families destitute at the Kamativi compound.

The government, through ZMDC, started looking for a strategic partner in 2013 when a South African investor showed keen interest to invest in the mine, but nothing came out of the talks.

Moyo said “something was being done” to reopen the mine.

“The government is working on having Kamativi opened. This is not a small project and we are doing everything we can,” said Moyo.

The prices have since stabilised around $23 000 per tonne and the former workers want to be allowed to mine on a small-scale.

Alternatively, the workers want a tributary arrangement with the government’s preferred investor who will buy their production. — The Source