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Zimbabwe’s Miners Face Higher Taxes to Fund State-Owned Mineral Exploration
Nov 2, 2015 6:46 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Zimbabwe’s
miners will be on the hook to pay a higher rate of tax to finance mineral exploration
in the country following the setting up of state exploration company, according
to a fin24 report.
“We want to transform
the MMCZ [Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe] into an exploration
company,” fin24 cited Zimbabwe’s mines and mining development minister Walter
Chidakwa as saying in an interview.
“There is no new
levy for exploration but the small fee that companies were paying to the MMCZ
will be increased to about 1 percent so that the money can be used to fund
exploration activities.”
The
move comes at a time when exploration in the nation is declining and miners
facing uncertainty, the online report said.
Zimbabwe
has vast mineral wealth, including diamonds, platinum and gold, but the country has
failed to transform its abundant natural resources into prosperity for 13 million
citizens, fin24 said, citing government officials.
It has attracted mining
investors such as South Africa’s Impala Platinum and Canadian gold explorer Caledonia
Mining Corporation, it said.
Zimbabwe-focused miners such as Aquarius Platinum were
likely to focus on cost containment and loss avoidance, Bruce
Williamson, the Imara Africa Resources fund manager, told fin24 in an e-mail on
Wednesday, it said.
“The coming months will remain exceptionally challenging for
both Kroondal and Mimosa,” he said. “At both operations, management’s focus
will be to prevent losses. So cost cutting will be the name of the game;
hopefully retrenchments can be avoided.”
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Tags:
mining, Rapaport News, tax, Zimbabwe
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