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Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
Ferrochrome producer, ZimAlloys has proposed to cede 50 percent of its ferrochrome reserves to Government, The Herald Business has learnt.

The proposal is part of the ferrochrome producer’s response to a directive given by Government last year which ordered Zimasco and ZimAlloys to cede part of their chrome claims.

ZimAlloys in total has 32 000 hectares but sources say it has offered 50 percent of its reserves to open space for investors to explore.

“ZimAlloys has written to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development proposing that it cedes 50 percent of its reserves. However, there were complications with regards to shareholder concerns as ZimAlloys, is not under mining lease but owns the land which holds the claims,” said a internal source.

As such there had been misunderstanding between ZimAlloys and Government over what the ferrochrome company was offering.

“We think it is feasible to surrender reserves because chrome reserves come in three forms that is, Lumpy open cast, and Lumpy underground and fine open cast.

“So with the current chrome prices no one is willing to mine underground therefore it is better that we cede reserves rather than land for the benefit of the two parties,” said the source.

Efforts to get a comment from ZimAlloys judicial manager Reggie Saruchera were fruitless while Mines and Mining Development Permanent Secretary Professor Francis Gudyanga’s mobile phone was not reachable.

Another ferrochrome producer, Zimasco has already ceded 50 percent of its chrome claims to Government to pave way for new investors to explore the chrome mining sector.

Zimbabwe holds the world’s second largest deposits of chrome, which is smelted to produce ferrochrome, a raw material used in the making of stainless steel.

Pronouncing the directive last year Minister Walter Chidhakwa said Zimasco and ZimAlloys will be left with enough mining claims that would meet their production targets.

In 2014 Zimbabwe produced 260,000 tonnes of high-carbon ferrochrome, which was 2,3 percent of global output.

Zimasco produced 68 percent of Zimbabwe’s ferrochrome in 2014.