HARARE - Zimbabwe is exploring for new mineral deposits as the hard pressed government seeks to raise cash from the country’s vast resources.
Mines minister Walter Chidhakwa said the new deposits will be used for securitisation of national loans and credits.
Among its extensive minerals base, the southern African nation has the second largest known platinum reserves in the world while it is believed to have capacity meet 30 percent of global rough diamonds demand.
However, government has failed to secure lines of credit to fund its $4,1 billion 2014 national budget, compelling it to mortgage minerals.
Chidhakwa said “identified deposits will be allocated to state institutions and made available to private organisations for optimised sustainable development and operations for the benefit of the nation”.
He added that the newly established Mining Promotion Corporation (MPC) is mandated “to know all about the deposits of Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth so that we can all decide on how to take advantage of our resources”.
Chidhakwa noted that minerals exploration will also help the government update its database and attract new investors in the mining industry.
This comes as mining has emerged as Zimbabwe’s major economic driver after agricultural output declined as a result of the controversial fast track land reform programme in the year 2000.
The sector is expected to grow by 11, 2 percent this year.
Mining is the biggest contributor of export receipts, with platinum group metals and gold leading.
According to geological experts, Zimbabwe has not done a detailed countrywide exploration in almost three decades, resulting in government relying on private investors to quantify resources.
“We are in the unenviable position where some private sector organisations know more about our minerals than we do as government. We also have the scenario where information we have is not maintained in the most investor friendly state,” Chidhakwa said.