BUSINESS REPORTER
Nigerian billionaire, Benedict Peters’ platinum mining plans in Zimbabwe, touted as evidence of investor endorsement of the Second Republic and a signature economic-booster project, has left many within government increasingly sceptical after the investor missed a series of deadlines to get the project off the ground.
In 2019, Bravura, controlled by Peters, was granted claims in Selous, on the mineral-rich Great Dyke, and promised to start construction within months of a signing ceremony presided over by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
But multiple Ministry of Mines and Mining Development top officials said Bravura has faced headwinds in progressing its exploration programme to confirm the resource.
They said Bravura has also missed key reporting requirements set for new investors by government.
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development extended Bravura’s deadline for the end of 2021 to submit reports on geological modelling, on when it would start mine design, and a schedule on the start of mine construction.
This was after Bravura had, in 2019, claimed it had raised US$1bn from internal resources to develop the mine in under 18 months.
But, these deadlines have been missed .
Senior officials in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development are said to have formally raised concern over Bravura’s capacity to deliver.
“Our requirements are that we get regular reporting on each stage of exploration and at each stage towards development of the project.
“We also want to see funding plans. We have had reporting from peers like Karo Resources who got concessions not long after them. We have not seen the same from Bravura. We have not seen an actual proof of funding, beyond the newspaper headlines, no schedule of financing,” one senior official in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development ,who requested anonymity, said.
Efforts to get a comment from Bravura country director, Lionel Mhlanga futile.
Mhlanga, however told media in December last year that the company had so far carried out 40 000 metres of drilling using core drilling rigs acquired at a cost of nearly $5m.
Bravura has over the past year, spent resources on gaining the support of local traditional leaders through donations to local villages and the local chief.
The Selous project would be the oil tycoon Peters’ first ever venture into platinum mining.
Industry experts have always pointed to the platinum group metals deposits at Hartley as too complex to mine, even for experienced miners.
Australian firm BHP abandoned mining at the site more than two decades ago after managing to dig up only about 30% of the targeted ore output resulting in the company writing down its investment by A$300m.
The Selous claims are also still part of a protracted legal dispute as former owners of the concessions, Amari Resources, were in 2019 awarded $73m in compensation by an international arbitrator after government cancelled its rights over the nickel and platinum claims.
Under pressure from Mnangagwa to develop the claims as part of the new “use it or lose it’ policy, Peters initially negotiated with Amari to settle part of the debt.
Ian Small-Smith, a lawyer acting for Amari, said Peters had approached Amari to thrash out a settlement. But, after initially agreeing to the deal and signing off on an escrow account, the Zimbabwe government pulled out of the deal.
However, concerns raised by senior officials in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development over Bravura have not stopped government from awarding Peters even more mineral assets.
The government has signed off to Peters gold concessions in the Fort Rixon area, a much sought-after belt in the south of Zimbabwe.
A production sharing agreement was signed between Bravura and the Zimbabwe government.
“Production from the concession will be shared in accordance with terms to be set in the Operating Agreement … which shall be by production sharing in the proportion of 80% for Bravura and 20% to the State. An Operating Committee will also be set up for the development and exploitation programme, whose composition shall be defined in the Operating Agreement,” reads part of a Government report on the plans.
Bvavura’s side of the deal is to supply airborne geophysical surveys using radiometric, magnetic, electromagnetic systems to enhance evaluation of gold and other minerals, among them tungsten, which are present in the under-explored area.
Under President Mnangagwa’s administration, the government has grown tougher on holders of undeveloped claims.
Government in 2020 announced that it would repossess more than 200 mining concessions that are lying idle, saying it feared they may be used for speculative purposes.
The scepticism over Bravura’s technical expertise and financial muscle can be linked to its billionaire owner who has been hogged by both success and controversy in the past.
Peters was forced to flee his native Nigeria and now lives in Ghana after reports of his improper financial conduct emerged in Africa’s populous country.
Peters, who is chairman of the Aiteo Group of Companies, the largest domestic oil producer in Nigeria, denies the charges and alleges a political plot by his rivals.
Last month Aiteo’s bid to venture into oil and gas sector in Mozambique hit a brick wall after the company’s exploration licence application was turned down by the Instituto Nacional de Petroleo , the regulatory authority that allocates exploration permits in the country.
