ZIMBABWE – Great Dyke Investments, a Russian-backed project planning to build Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine, has sold a 4.4% stake to Fossil Mines Ltd. as Covid-19 disrupted fundraising for the venture.
Fossil, owned by Zimbabwe’s Obey Chimuka, will invest US$30 million in the Darwendale project, through a combination of cash and services, including for engineering, procurement, and construction.
That move leaves tycoon Vitaliy Machitski’s Vi Holding and Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining Venture Ltd. each with a 47.8% stake.
The sale values Great Dyke Investments at US$680 million.
Great Dyke Investments Chief Executive Officer Alex Ivanov said the coronavirus pandemic has delayed project fundraising, which was originally due to be completed this year.
Financing of US$665 million is now expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2021, Ivanov said in an emailed response to New Zimbabwe.
The lead arranger for that funding is Cairo-based Afreximbank.
The Darwendale project has the potential to become one of the world’s biggest platinum mines and its development is central to the Zimbabwean government’s plans to reboot a collapsing economy.
Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest platinum group metal reserves after South Africa and Russia.
Former president Robert Mugabe handed the Darwendale concession to Russian investors in 2006 after the government repossessed land from a local unit of South Africa’s Impala Platinum Holdings Limited.
Liked this article? Subscribe to DealStreet Africa News, our regular email newsletter with the latest news, deals and insights from Africa’s business, economy and more. SUBSCRIBE HERE
