The Sunday News
MINING remains the leading sector in terms of investment inquiries and actual approvals by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) with South Africa and China being the major source markets.
As part of Sunday Business’ strategy of following on investment projects in the region, last week the focus was on mining with a tour of Phat Ore Mine in Ntabende area of Esigodini.
In an interview, Bulgarian investor Mr Tzvetan Tzonev, said Zimbabwe was endowed with natural resources and was a peaceful investment destination with hardworking people.
“I first came here as a consultant and saw a lot of opportunities in Zimbabwe, the potential is immense but the environment and people drew me here. Unlike in other countries I have been in, Zimbabwe is a peaceful investment destination,” said Mr Tzonev.
Phat Ore Mine was approved by ZIA in 2012 to mine gold and is a partnership between local investor, Mrs Beatrice Marumahoko, who is the major shareholder and foreign investors Mr Tzonev from Bulgaria and Mr Salim Khouri from Lebanon.
“We are on the green belt that stretches all the way to the Great Dyke,” he said.
Mine manager Mr Jasiel Mapako said the mine, which has five blocks, had managed to change one of the blocks to Phat Ore Mining although he bemoaned the high costs of changing ownership at the Ministry of Mines.
Mr Mapako said the initial investment into the mine which employs about 25 locals was US$4 million including equipment.
“This area was a bush with no electricity and we made efforts to get power from Esigodini. However, we intend to increase voltage because of the machinery we are bringing in,” said Mr Mapako.
He said they intended to double the number of employees by the end of the year.
He said their priority was to conserve the environment that they operate in and secure the safety of employees.
“We are trying to work with resources that we have as you can see, we have built a compound for our employees and we ensure that we rehabilitate all excavated areas. We ensure that there is very little disturbance of the environment and exploration is done only on certain areas,” he said.
Speaking on the benefits that the investment had on the region, Mr Mapako said when industry in Bulawayo becomes fully operational, they intended to acquire all chemicals and whatever else they use locally instead of importing so as to support local industry.
He said the local Ntabende and Esigodini communities were benefitting from the mining concern which has since its conception drilled a borehole for the Ntabende villagers, donated furniture to Ntabende primary school as well as partaking in most community events like field days and social soccer.
“We have good relations with the community that we operate in and we intend to assist in road rehabilitation since we own a D8N caterpillar. The community will also benefit from the 10 percent share from the mine,” said Mr Mapako.
According to ZIA, there is a lot of investment in mining in Matabeleland region because of the abundance of gold in areas like Inyathi, Filabusi, Kezi and Gwanda as well as coal in the Matabeleland North area.
ZIA said natural resources were abundant and mining was leading in both inquiries and approved projects.
