Implats reaches deal with Zim

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum producer said it has reached an ‘acceptable’ agreement with the government under empowerment laws demanding it yields 51 per cent ownership to blacks.

South Africa’s Implats, majority owner of the Zimbabwe producer, said in a Tuesday statement that the government agreed ‘in principle’ on Tuesday to its proposals for the transfer of a 51 per cent shareholding that will be overseen by a joint technical team of experts from both sides.It said the hand over will be at an ‘appropriate value’. It was not clear how long the transfer will take.The announcement ends a tense standoff over Zimbabwe’s threatened takeovers of foreign-controlled businesses and mines.A Tuesday deadline had been set for the miner to meet ‘indigenisation’ laws.Implats chief executive David Brown said that after lengthy disputes and delays over Zimbabwe’s empowerment laws ‘essentially we have found each other’.’It is pleasing to submit a plan that complies with the law … this augurs well for the mining industry,’ he told reporters. ‘It creates some certainty and a more stable investment environment’.Earlier Tuesday, Zimbabwe empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere met with Implats board chairman Khotso Mokele.Kasukuwere said the miner’s proposals ‘basically comply’ and he agreed that in principle they met Zimbabwe’s expectations.’We are going to work out details of the transfer later,’ he told reporters.The Implats statement said the platinum producer addressed the minimum requirements of Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act and other regulations passed over the last two years.The technical team will be made up of officials of Implats, the empowerment ministry and a state regulatory board on empowerment, it said.Last year, Zimplats became the first foreign-owned company to cede 10 per cent of its holdings to a local community trust. Then it offered another stake of about 10 per cent of its mining claims.But Zimbabwe accused the company of delaying tactics and ordered it to hand over another 30 per cent by mid-March. South African-based Implats owns 87 per cent of existing shares in Zimplats.Kasukuwere had said there would be no compromise over taking local control and vowed he would seize the mine and its assets if the owners defaulted on those demands by March 13 -Nampa-AP