Zimplats, chief executive office, Alex Mhembere

ZIMBABWE’S largest platinum miner, Zimbabwe Platinum Mines (Private) Limited (Zimplats), is planning to lease about 15 000 hectares of land in Ngezi to cattle ranchers.
Alex Mhembere, the chief executive officer Australian-listed resources concern, said Zimplats would “demarcate its mining land into a portion of paddocks and lease them to the community”.
“We have nearly 15 000 hectares of land which is our mining lease land in Ngezi and our plan is to demarcate this into different portions,” Mhembere told The Financial Gazette on the sidelines of an Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe Winter School held in Victoria Falls.
“Out of these portions, we are going to give or lease the paddocks to the local community. Instead of them spending the whole day looking after cattle, we will create fenced paddocks for them, fully equipped with water facilities and sleeping facilities.
“So in the morning they would just come open, put their animals then they can go and work in their fields and do other projects. At the end of the day, they can come and take their animals (from the paddocks). What it means is that we are freeing the community by giving them time to focus on other things that add value in their lives,” he said.
“What we are going to do is to give them commercial value, developing them into commercial ranchers. We will help them develop their animals and we will link them to various logistics like abattoirs like Montana Meats, the Cold Storage Commission and many others.”
He said Zimplats would give the community “seed for the animals and the infrastructure”.
“We are hoping that they will be able to generate high quality products. Our view is that we exist to transform the lives of people living in areas that we are mining. We believe in making our contribution to the government through agricultural development,” said Mhembere.
Government recently expressed its intention to compulsorily acquire land belonging to Zimplats measuring about 28 000 hectares within the special mining lease area. Zimplats is, however, in discussions with government on the matter.
Zimplats operates four underground mines in Ngezi, namely Ngwarati, Rukodzi, Mupfuti and Bimha.
Mhembere said the redevelopment of Bimha Mine, which collapsed in 2014, was on schedule to reach full production in April 2018.
The miner, according to a report for the quarter to March 2017, invested about $32 million on the project.
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