News / Local
Chinamasa gives green light for Mimosa platinum refinery
17 Dec 2016 at 15:05hrs | Views
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa has approved Mimosa Platinum Mine's proposed site for the establishment of a refinery plant and given the green light for commencement of construction work.
Chinamasa gave his thumbs up to the project during a tour of Mimosa Mine where among other things he was briefed on the company's plans to construct a refinery plant.
The move by Mimosa to construct a refinery comes after Government through Ministries of Finance introduced 15% tax on all platinum exports as a measure to force platinum miners to open refineries.
Chinamasa said the country has been losing a lot of revenue through raw exportation of platinum ore due to lack of refineries in the country.
"I had received a brief from Walter Chidhakwa (Minister of Mines and Mining Development) that there is going to be a refinery in Zvishavane hence I decided to see for myself this wonderful project that will benefit the Zimbabwe economy," said Chinamasa.
The Finance minister said that the government is going to remove the 15% tax that it imposed on platinum mines as soon as refineries are established. Mimosa Mining Company Executive Chairman Mr Winston Chitando said they are expecting the project to be completed by 2018.
"According to our plans we expect the project to be completed by 2018 and that will go a long way in changing the platinum mining field here in Zimbabwe," he said.
Mimosa was the remaining platinum mine that had not established a refinery site, with Ngezi Platinum suggesting the refurbishment of the BHP Selous refinery while Anglo-Platinum's Unki Mine proposed the resuscitating of Zimbabwe Alloys as its refinery chambers.
Chinamasa gave his thumbs up to the project during a tour of Mimosa Mine where among other things he was briefed on the company's plans to construct a refinery plant.
The move by Mimosa to construct a refinery comes after Government through Ministries of Finance introduced 15% tax on all platinum exports as a measure to force platinum miners to open refineries.
"I had received a brief from Walter Chidhakwa (Minister of Mines and Mining Development) that there is going to be a refinery in Zvishavane hence I decided to see for myself this wonderful project that will benefit the Zimbabwe economy," said Chinamasa.
The Finance minister said that the government is going to remove the 15% tax that it imposed on platinum mines as soon as refineries are established. Mimosa Mining Company Executive Chairman Mr Winston Chitando said they are expecting the project to be completed by 2018.
"According to our plans we expect the project to be completed by 2018 and that will go a long way in changing the platinum mining field here in Zimbabwe," he said.
Mimosa was the remaining platinum mine that had not established a refinery site, with Ngezi Platinum suggesting the refurbishment of the BHP Selous refinery while Anglo-Platinum's Unki Mine proposed the resuscitating of Zimbabwe Alloys as its refinery chambers.
Source - Masvingo Mirror
