Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining to purchase four state-owned gold mines



by SOURAV D

Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining to purchase four state-owned gold mines
Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining to purchase four state-owned gold mines

Landela Mining Venture, a privately-held mining start-up majority owned by a Zimbabwean businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei who appears to be an adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa as well, had reached an accord with the Zimbabwean Government to purchase four idle state-backed gold mines in the country, Landela Mining Venture Chief Executive said in a statement on Friday.

In point of fact, Tagwirei, the controlling stakeholder in the Landela Mining Venture, had been in a JV with the Netherlands-based Commodities trader Trafigura in the lucrative fossil-fuel sector, however, earlier this year Trafigura had taken over the JV and Landela Mining had ramped up its buying spree since then.

Landela plans to purchase Government-owned gold mines through debt and equities

Meanwhile, followed by the Landela Mining Venture announcement, the company Chief Executive David Brown said to a press agency in an emailed statemen that the slated takeovers deals would be financed by debt and equity adding “Agreements are in place, but a close-out of the process is still subject to being finalised with the appropriate authorities.

I would expect it to be completed in Q3 and will be funded through a mixture of debt and equity. ” Besides, the four mines which the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) put up for sale back in the 2018s, but the Government had stalled the process last year without providing a reason, had a capacity to produce at least 85,000 ounces of gold a year, said the ZMDC.

Besides, latest act from the Zimbabwean Government, whose FX reserves solely depend on gold, came forth days after the Govt. had halted trading in the stock markets and had stopped mobile phone-based payments accountable for roughly 80 per cent of entire Zimbabwean transactions over accusation of an “economic sabotage” aimed at aiding the people to purchase US Dollar through equities based on the rates in the foreign stock exchanges, eventually devaluing the Zimbabwean Dollar which was re-introduced last year in a bid to put an end to the freefall of the country’s former currency.