HARARE – Ten companies
are to take control of Zimbabwe’s privatised gold refinery for US$49 million,
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said Thursday.
This will be the first
time that the refinery will be in private hands since it was established in
1988.
The sale, first
announced in December last year, will see the new shareholders owning 60% of Fidelity Printers
& Refiners, while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) retains the remaining
40%.
“The process of
partial privatisation of Fidelity Printers and Refineries through offering 60%
of its shareholding in the gold refinery business to producers of gold. The
Central Bank will remain with 40% in the gold refinery company and 100% in the
printing, minting and gold financing business. Ten shareholders have so far
accepted to take shareholding in Fidelity Gold Refinery at a total
consideration of US$49 million,” Ncube told Parliament as he presented a budget
review statement.
He did not name the
shareholders.
However, under the
ownership structure announced last year, companies would take shareholding
based on the average quantity of gold delivered to Fidelity over the previous
three years. Large scale miners will hold a 50% shareholding, while 3% will go
to gold buying agents and the remaining 7% to the small scale producers through
their representative bodies.
Among the country’s
largest gold producers are Kuvimba – which controls Freda Rebecca, Shamva and
other mines – Caledonia Mining, which runs Blanket, and RioZim, which owns
three gold mines.
Kuvimba’s biggest
mine, Freda, produced 2,7 tonnes last year. Blanket Mine produced 1,6 tonnes
while output at RioZim was 1,21 tonnes for 2020.
The privatisation of
FPR came after lobbying from some players in the mining business.
It follows the model
of Rand Refinery, South Africa’s biggest refinery, which is owned by the five
largest gold miners Anglogold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony, Sibanye Gold and
DRDGOLD.
However, the
privatisation will create fresh controversy over the ownership of mining
assets, given the leading role that Kuvimba, whose shareholding structure has been subject
to public scrutiny, is likely to play
due to its commanding output.
FPR started refining
gold in 1988, and at its peak producers from abroad sent in their gold for
refining at its Msasa refinery. However, FPR has not used most of its installed
capacity to refine 50 tonnes of gold per year, and its new owners will have to
invest substantially in retooling.
The company, which
buys gold from miners from at least a dozen centres around the country, has
struggled to pay miners on time for gold deliveries, pushing miners to call for
its privatisation. – newZwire
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