Setback for Meikles' mining sector foray

Meikles Africa Ltd's bid to venture into the mining sector could suffer a major setback after a plan to take over a resource group hit a brick wall amid concerns directors of the group's partners – Centar Asian Resources – had murky and colourful pasts that could drag the mining firm's reputation into the mud and create problems with Zimbabwean authorities.

Well-placed sources this week said a director of Centar, Richard Williams, has been in and out of the country touring various mining assets with a view to help raise funding, acquire, and add value to the mining companies the UK-based company had identified. But most of the companies identified by Meikles Centar Mining got concerned with Centar directors' colourful pasts.

Centar was founded in June 2011 by Ian Hannam, the former JP Morgan Cazenove rainmaker who was fined by the Financial Services Authority over market abuse allegations and irregular share dealings in London Stock Exchange- listed companies earlier this year and was unceremoniously forced to step down from JP Morgan bank.

Sources say Zimbabwean authorities are suspicious of the British investor, given his role in Afghanistan and other troubled countries and as most of his fellow executives have military backgrounds in the Rhodesian Selous Scouts regiment and the British SAS respectively.

This comes a few days after Meikles said its partners had raised $500 million in capital for the mining venture.