News / National
South African company suing Zimbabwe for $500 million
10 Oct 2011 at 07:15hrs | Views
South Africa-based Amari Platinum, whose joint mining ventures in Zimbabwe were cancelled by the Ministry of Mines in controversial circumstances last year, is suing the government for a whopping $500 million for breach of contract at the International Court in Paris.
The broke inclusive government is said to be panicking over the massive lawsuit, but it has failed to come up with a concrete solution as the deal was done by the Zanu-PF regime.
Amari, which sunk $35-million into platinum exploration in the country, went into a joint venture with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation to form Zimari before the licence was cancelled.
Zimari was in the process of developing a $200-million Serui platinum project in Selous, about 70km from Harare, when the joint venture was stopped.
Earlier this year the High Court in Harare dismissed an application in which Amari Holdings challenged the cancellation, saying the matter was not urgent, but it will still be heard in the courts. But the SA-based company feels that it could have lost $500-million due to the cancellation of the project, which was set to be fully operational by 2014.
Amari was the largest foreign investor in the mining exploration sector between 2008 and 2009. Mining experts and Ministry of Mines officials say the Serui Platinum Project, which was going to be a world-class venture, would have become one of the biggest platinum producers in the region.
The broke inclusive government is said to be panicking over the massive lawsuit, but it has failed to come up with a concrete solution as the deal was done by the Zanu-PF regime.
Amari, which sunk $35-million into platinum exploration in the country, went into a joint venture with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation to form Zimari before the licence was cancelled.
Zimari was in the process of developing a $200-million Serui platinum project in Selous, about 70km from Harare, when the joint venture was stopped.
Earlier this year the High Court in Harare dismissed an application in which Amari Holdings challenged the cancellation, saying the matter was not urgent, but it will still be heard in the courts. But the SA-based company feels that it could have lost $500-million due to the cancellation of the project, which was set to be fully operational by 2014.
Amari was the largest foreign investor in the mining exploration sector between 2008 and 2009. Mining experts and Ministry of Mines officials say the Serui Platinum Project, which was going to be a world-class venture, would have become one of the biggest platinum producers in the region.
Source - sundaytimes I Dailynews
