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Oliver Kazunga-Senior Business Reporter

ONE of Zimbabwe’s largest mining companies, Kuvimba Mining House has acquired 50 percent shareholding in Great Dyke Investments (GDI) from Afromet Joint Stock Company.

Afromet JSC is 100 percent owned by Russia’s investment and industrial group Vi Holding. 

Great Dyke Investments (GDI) is a Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) mining firm in Darwendale in Mashonaland West province while Kuvimba Mining House (KMH), in which the Government is a significant shareholder, owns some of the country’s most valuable mining assets cutting across a range of minerals that include gold, chrome and nickel.

In a statement, the mining group said the latest acquisition will have material impact on the value of KMH as it forges ahead with positioning itself in participating in Zimbabwe’s economy.

 “The board of directors of Kuvimba Mining House (Private) Limited is pleased to announce that KMH has concluded negotiations to purchase 50 percent of the shares in GDI from Afromet Joint Stock Company.

“This acquisition will have a material impact on the value of KMH as it continues to take its rightful place in the economy,” it said.

“It does so by contributing directly towards the attainment of the mining sector vision of delivering a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023, which anchors the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1).”

The Great Dyke is the world’s second-largest system of PGMs mineralisation.

NDS 1 is the country’s five-year economic blueprint running between 2021 and 2025 with the objective of improving productivity across all economic sectors as Zimbabwe moves towards attaining an upper-middle-income economy status by 2030.

Last year, KMH paid an inaugural US$5,2 million dividend to the Government and other local shareholders after posting a positive performance in the year ended March 31, 2021.

The Government and various local investment vehicles such as the Deposit Protection, Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe, Public Service Pension Management Fund, Insurance and Pension Commission, National Venture Capital Company, and Datvest Nominees own KMH Group.

The mining group owns and manages three operating gold mines such as Shamva Gold Mine, Freda Rebecca and Jena as well as three non-operating gold mines.

The entity also owns various chrome operations and an operating nickel mine, Bindura Nickel Corporation in Mashonaland Central province.

Since its inception in 2020, KMH has seen the performance of the underlying mining assets improve significantly.

For instance, Shamva Gold Mine resumed operations in 2020 with the mine targeting 400 kilogrammes of gold per month by 2023.

The mining group has revealed plans to acquire Exclusive Prospecting Orders to further extend its footprint in the country’s mining industry.

As part of growing its asset base by acquiring and reviving mothballed footprint, KHM also intends to resuscitate the Club and Tiger Gold Mine in Kwekwe.